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Speaker 1: There was this perfect stranger, this woman in New York

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Speaker 1: named Sloan who sent a snail mail letter in the

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Speaker 1: mail that said, I saw the story about you, and again,

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Speaker 1: this was a person that I was not. Ever we

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Speaker 1: didn't help her with lawns, but I guess it was

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Speaker 1: a time when she needed to hear or see something

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Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't know what she was going through.

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Speaker 1: I didn't know this person. She wrote me a letter saying,

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Speaker 1: dear Brian, I saw the story about you mowing lawns.

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Speaker 1: It gave me some hope and inspiration. And then she

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Speaker 1: went on to say I once saw on a T

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Speaker 1: shirt either reason someone believes in the goodness of people,

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Speaker 1: and she left it off with you are that reason, sir,

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Speaker 1: and that it made it made me cry, and it

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Speaker 1: was something that I needed to hear in that moment.

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Speaker 1: It made me feel valued, like I was doing something meaningful,

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Speaker 1: and I wanted to scale up that feeling, realizing I'm

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Speaker 1: to something just bigger than myself.

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Speaker 2: Now, welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

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Speaker 2: I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,

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Speaker 2: I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in

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Speaker 2: Inner City Memphis, and that last part somehow it led

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Speaker 2: to an oscar for the film about our team. That

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Speaker 2: movie is called Undefeated. Guys, I believe our country's problems

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Speaker 2: are never going to be solved by a bunch of

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Speaker 2: fancy people in nice suits using big words that nobody

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Speaker 2: ever uses on CNN and Fox, but rather by an

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Speaker 2: army of normal folks us just you and me deciding, Hey,

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Speaker 2: you know what, maybe I can help. That's what Brian Schwartz,

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Speaker 2: the voice you just heard, has done. Brian is the

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Speaker 2: founder of I Want to Mow Your Lawn, which started

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Speaker 2: with him deciding to mow lawns of folks in need

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Speaker 2: in his area, and it has turned into his own

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Speaker 2: army of one thousand, four hundred and four normal folks

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Speaker 2: moined the lines of over two thousand people. I cannot

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Speaker 2: wait for you to meet Brian right after these brief

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Speaker 2: messages from our generous sponsors, Hey, everybody, welcome back. So

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Speaker 2: here's the deal. I do business in a lot of

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Speaker 2: different countries and excuse office, what excuses excuses? And I

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Speaker 2: have an office in Shanghai and had a contingent here

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Speaker 2: from China when we did this interview, and Alex apparently

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Speaker 2: texted me the date and the time of the interview,

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Speaker 2: and I agreed to do that and put it on

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Speaker 2: my calendar and didn't. So while I had a bunch

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Speaker 2: of people from China in my office trying to do business,

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Speaker 2: our guest Brian showed up for his interview, and so all.

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Speaker 3: The way from New York, all the way.

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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Anyway, basically I'm a loser and I

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Speaker 2: double booked by time and Alex aptly filled in for me.

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Speaker 3: You know what had solved this bill? What's that We've

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Speaker 3: only talked about it like a hundred times, which is

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Speaker 3: what a Google calendar no, like I can put things

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Speaker 3: like the rest of the world, okay, has adopted these

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Speaker 3: things called digital calendars.

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Speaker 2: The paper calendar that I have does. Batteries can never

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Speaker 2: go dead in it, except it's not.

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Speaker 3: It doesn't work.

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Speaker 1: It does work.

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Speaker 3: Your process failed.

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Speaker 2: I think you just need to send me a master

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Speaker 2: or something. But I'm not doing Google Calendar because I

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Speaker 2: don't want the battery to go out in my calendar.

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Speaker 3: I've never had the battery go out on my computer.

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Speaker 3: I charge it like, and I charge my phone like.

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Speaker 3: It's not a problem.

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Speaker 2: Anyways, Brian is a middle class dude from Wayne, New

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Speaker 2: Jersey who showed up and I know showed him, but

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Speaker 2: Alex handled the interview quite well. So let's go to

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Speaker 2: the conversation with Alex on working in Manhattan.

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Speaker 1: You know, I grew attached to this company and sadly

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Speaker 1: they decided to let go of all the US employees

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Speaker 1: in my in my department, like outsourcing overseas. And this

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Speaker 1: is this is twenty fifteen. This is so, this isn't

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Speaker 1: the first time I've this is the first time I

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Speaker 1: ever got laid off and lost my job. So twenty fifteen,

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Speaker 1: thankfully bounced back to work for another agency that later

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Speaker 1: got acquired by some other company and got laid off

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Speaker 1: again twenty fifteen. So in that moment in twenty fifteen,

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Speaker 1: I was questioning my own self work.

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Speaker 3: And to come, what were you married at the time.

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Speaker 1: I met my wife, Jennifer in twenty fourteen, so she

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Speaker 1: was with me like right in, like the heat of

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Speaker 1: it all one year of dating. We got married in

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Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, so she stuck by me during some crazy times.

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Speaker 1: So I knew that I needed to change and worked

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Speaker 1: for an agency where I was with for three and

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Speaker 1: a half years, and I learned there that the grass

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Speaker 1: isn't always greener, no pun intended, like because I heard

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Speaker 1: from a recruiter that offered to pay more with an

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Speaker 1: easier commute for me, and I was getting ready to

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Speaker 1: start a family, bought a house, and this is the

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Speaker 1: company that I was with when the pandemic started. So

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Speaker 1: we all started working from home. And it was June

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Speaker 1: of twenty twenty that I thought I was getting a

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Speaker 1: phone call from HR about paternity leave. I was we

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Speaker 1: were expecting our first newborn.

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Speaker 3: And how long from then?

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Speaker 1: So yeah, so it was June eighth of twenty twenty,

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Speaker 1: so he was slated. He was gonna be born in

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Speaker 1: July of twenty twenty. So it was June of twenty twenty,

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Speaker 1: like a month prior. So at that moment, my wife

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Speaker 1: is eight months pregnant. Let me I'm sorry, Let me

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Speaker 1: trace back a second. So it was before I joined

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Speaker 1: this company. It was Thanksgiving of this is an important

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Speaker 1: part Thanksgiving, Like right before Thanksgiving of twenty eighteen, I

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Speaker 1: was still with that one agency I was with for

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Speaker 1: a few years and received a call from my father

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Speaker 1: directly my biological father, that he they found a tumor

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Speaker 1: in his brain and required surgery. So I was in shambles,

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Speaker 1: like trying to understand what's going on and so. And

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Speaker 1: he was living in Boston with his new wife and

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Speaker 1: his two kids, who at the time were like young teens,

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Speaker 1: and my you know, coworkers pulled me aside. We went downstairs,

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Speaker 1: like I tried to get myself together, and he called

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Speaker 1: me and told me that it was pretty much a

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Speaker 1: stage four glioblastoma, like the most aggressive form of brain cancer.

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Speaker 1: And I think the commons person was my father, like

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Speaker 1: he was telling us it's okay, like he's had a

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Speaker 1: good life, he's got four kids. He was sixty five

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Speaker 1: at the time, young young, Yeah. I mean the most

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Speaker 1: admirable trait of his was his brain. His brain, Like

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Speaker 1: he was so smart, like doing stuff for like the government.

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Speaker 1: I'd never really understood with all the stuff he was doing.

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Speaker 1: But we went out there to support like some of

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Speaker 1: the surgeries he went through, some like treatments. The doctors

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Speaker 1: only gave him fifteen months to live, and this was

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Speaker 1: Thanksgiving of two thousand and eight teen. Fast forward, he

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Speaker 1: surpassed doctor projections. He met his first grandson, and this

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Speaker 1: was the summer of twenty twenty, so Tosher will Power,

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Speaker 1: he met his first grandson, and it was like the

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Speaker 1: early well towards the tail end of twenty twenty that

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Speaker 1: he saw this nonprofit get started, like he was one

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Speaker 1: of the first.

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Speaker 3: To jumping ahead. Yeah, I'm jump get the phone call

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Speaker 3: from h your.

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Speaker 1: Heart Yeah so now okay, now, so going back to

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Speaker 1: this latest agency that was with in twenty twenty, telling

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Speaker 1: me there to let me go straight up, and they

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Speaker 1: knew that I was expecting a newborn, and they knew

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Speaker 1: that my father was battling an illness. Mind you, at

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Speaker 1: the same time, like I just had a grandfather who

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Speaker 1: just passed like months prior before the pandemic. Thankfully we

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Speaker 1: had a proper burial for him. I was really close

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Speaker 1: with him. And combine everything that just happened there in

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Speaker 1: that moment, thinking about losing a job that was pretty

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Speaker 1: much six figures going to zero and going to have

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Speaker 1: to collect unemployment, go on a mortgage forbearance.

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Speaker 3: The first time you had ever done either of those things,

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Speaker 3: going unemployment and mortgage for a barance first time?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Both, yeah, both, yep, that was the first time

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Speaker 1: I had to do that. So I was obviously very stressful.

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Speaker 1: Between that and my wife having the first newborn, trying

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Speaker 1: to having to deliver the news to her was quite stressful,

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Speaker 1: combined with telling my father like who's you know battling

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Speaker 1: in illness, terminal illness and everything else going down in

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Speaker 1: the world with COVID and societal unrest and yeah, so

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Speaker 1: they told me twenty twenty and I think it was

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Speaker 1: like a few weeks later. Well, it was a few

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Speaker 1: days later that on a whim, I just said, you know,

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Speaker 1: I understand that volunteering in the time of job transition

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Speaker 1: is helpful for oneself, not just for your yourself, but

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Speaker 1: as almost like a conversational piece for possible employers. And

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Speaker 1: I probably could have just signed up to volunteer for

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Speaker 1: Habitat for Humanity or any other which was great too. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: of course by all means, yes, but I didn't have

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Speaker 1: I felt like I didn't have any control over anything.

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Speaker 1: So I just, on a whim utilize some of my

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Speaker 1: advertising website background just to create a website, adding some

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Speaker 1: simple contact information called I want to Mow your lawn

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Speaker 1: dot com. Very straightforward.

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Speaker 3: That's funny you started a website out the gate rather

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Speaker 3: than just like a few days later doing it, maybe

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Speaker 3: for a couple of people first to eventually get around

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Speaker 3: to website.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so I I it was a culmination of events

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Speaker 1: between millions of people losing their jobs, older adults being

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Speaker 1: vulnerable to the virus. The quote the yeah, just in

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Speaker 1: a parallel universe, I might not have I probably would

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Speaker 1: not have made such a decision. I'd still be in

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Speaker 1: my own world, commuting into New York City, living the

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Speaker 1: high life, working for an advertising agency, commuting every day,

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Speaker 1: versus leaning in and adapting to the times. I could

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Speaker 1: have just stayed holed up and been depressed at home.

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Speaker 1: But instead of just like putting out to my LinkedIn

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Speaker 1: network that I'm looking for a job, can someone help me,

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Speaker 1: like just asking for something, I wanted to add to

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Speaker 1: something I want to because I tried to. I tuned

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Speaker 1: out social media for a while, just just with all

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Speaker 1: the bad news going on, but I wanted to contribute

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Speaker 1: some way to I felt like I was still fully capable,

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Speaker 1: Like I'm very big into going to the gym and

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Speaker 1: staying active, and at that time, like the gyms were,

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Speaker 1: you know, on lockdown for a few months. So I

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Speaker 1: wanted to do something active. So just mowing my own

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Speaker 1: loan was a form of therapy for me. So it

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Speaker 1: just it made perfect say it as like kind of

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Speaker 1: like a social distant activity and thinking about my late

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Speaker 1: grandfather who just passed, and think about the stress that

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Speaker 1: some families were going through. It was just I put

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Speaker 1: just it made perfect sense in that moment to offer

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Speaker 1: just mowing to people that couldn't use it. And so

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Speaker 1: I advertised, I put that on my website, posted it

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Speaker 1: up on social media, and that same day I get

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Speaker 1: a call from a local news reporter and did like

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Speaker 1: a news story on it. And this was like before

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Speaker 1: I even I had no vision.

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Speaker 3: Before anyone's lawn.

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Speaker 1: Yet, before I mooted anyone's lawn, I.

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Speaker 3: Think they should have waited until the lawn.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but I guess the set of the saying you know,

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Speaker 1: uh laid off individual wants. Again, it wasn't like a

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Speaker 1: mainstream thing, just like a local TV spot. And he

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Speaker 1: I remember speaking with him, He's like, you sure you

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Speaker 1: want to do this? You probably get a lot of

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Speaker 1: phone calls. I'm like, sure, I got nothing to.

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Speaker 3: Lose, And did you give out your phone number.

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Speaker 1: Or I set up actually in that read before I

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Speaker 1: even I have like the business website address had the website,

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Speaker 1: but I also have like a business phone number, just

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Speaker 1: thinking ahead that I would probably get a gazillion phone call.

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Speaker 1: So no one was calling my personal cell phone. And

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Speaker 1: that's still the same phone number we used to this day.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, so the story came out, the story came out.

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Speaker 1: I put up a Facebook page and repurposed that and

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Speaker 1: through a few advertising dollars with some money that I

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Speaker 1: did have save up, just to keep my mind, my body,

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Speaker 1: my soul stimulated, because like it was super stressful. Right.

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Speaker 3: So I heard you in another interview, and it's an

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Speaker 3: interesting thing that, I mean, you just lost your income

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Speaker 3: and yet I think you spent around five hundred dollars

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Speaker 3: in advertising on Facebook, you know, whereas you know most

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Speaker 3: people in that moment. I wanted to reflect on this

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Speaker 3: a little bit earlier too. It's just thankfully I've not

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Speaker 3: been through that, so I haven't had the experience I

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Speaker 3: mean telling you in the car. I mean, I've been

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Speaker 3: through divorce and other ugly things I didn't want, you know,

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Speaker 3: in my life, but I have not had a layoff

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Speaker 3: that i've you know, dealt with, and like the fear

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Speaker 3: of where you're going to make you know money and

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Speaker 3: how hard I mean, I'm sure it's hard for a

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Speaker 3: woman to tell her husband too, but for you know,

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Speaker 3: feel a man to come home and tell your wife

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Speaker 3: that you know and how you would, you know feel

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Speaker 3: about yourself. I'm sure you know all those are tough,

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Speaker 3: you know, and raising and then obviously needing to protect

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Speaker 3: your money too because you don't know the future, you know,

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Speaker 3: and yet you're willing to spend a five hundred dollars

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Speaker 3: that you probably shouldn't been doing.

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Speaker 1: Nuts. I don't know what got like. It feels like

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Speaker 1: a blur, but I feel like, at the same time,

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Speaker 1: like I could at least get the word out because

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Speaker 1: it was a win win for all. Right, I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to like do something good for humanity, do something for

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Speaker 1: myself that you know, makes me feel good. I felt

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Speaker 1: like that would also be a talking point for potential Again,

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Speaker 1: this was when I didn't even it didn't become a

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Speaker 1: nonprofit yet, Like, I had no visions, no plans, just

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Speaker 1: to stay busy until I figured out the next step

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Speaker 1: in my life, right, And I felt like I can

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Speaker 1: speak to that advertising aspect for any potential employer that

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Speaker 1: might come. So I did throw like a link to

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Speaker 1: like my portfolio on that website at that time. It

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Speaker 1: was so it was like a win win for everyone

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Speaker 1: with hopes that somebody would see it and consider reaching out.

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Speaker 1: And I did hear from some from some people along

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Speaker 1: the way for job opportunities from doing that specifically. So

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Speaker 1: and that was my mindset at the time, right, And

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Speaker 1: so putting the advertising dollars around, like to anyone that

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Speaker 1: was in within a five mile radius, sixty five years

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Speaker 1: and older, and I started to develop like a pretty

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Speaker 1: decent portfolio of homes within twenty mile radius, and I

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Speaker 1: was saying yes to everything. I think I found myself

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Speaker 1: going thirty miles each way.

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Speaker 3: All right, It's like, how many homes s're in this radius?

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of thousands upon thousands.

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Speaker 3: But how many did you hear from.

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Speaker 1: I must have thinking back to the original campaign's probably

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Speaker 1: a couple hundred.

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Speaker 3: Wow, I assume you didn't cut off a couple hundred later.

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Speaker 1: So no, to this day, maybe I'm around one hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty myself real individual homes. Holy cow, I'm like

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Speaker 1: five years later.

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Speaker 3: A total or on a regular base total okay, which

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Speaker 3: I'll get into.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, in terms of frequency you.

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Speaker 3: Would Rodene your nuts. But we'll get into that at

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Speaker 3: a minute.

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Speaker 2: Ye round, yeah, and now a few messages from our

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Speaker 2: gender sponsors. But first, I hope you'll consider signing up

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Speaker 2: to join the army at normal folks dot us. By

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00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:02,480
Speaker 2: signing up, you'll receive a weekly email with short episodes

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Speaker 2: some reason in case you happen to miss an episode,

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Speaker 2: or if you prefer reading about our incredible guests, we'll

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Speaker 2: be right back.

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Speaker 1: So when I started to feel like it's getting to

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Speaker 1: be too much, I decided to kind of just put

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Speaker 1: a press release out to like a larger newspaper.

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Speaker 3: And so when it was getting to be too much,

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Speaker 3: tell me, like what that was like in a week,

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Speaker 3: Like at that point, how many longs are you doing

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Speaker 3: a week?

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Speaker 1: I was doing it like an average three to four

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Speaker 1: a day, like a busy day.

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Speaker 3: That's a lot.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I had a few extra hours to spare just

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Speaker 1: folding up my personal gas mower into the back of

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Speaker 1: the family jeep. You know, grass clippings everywhere, gasoline smell,

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Speaker 1: and had a baby seat right in the middle.

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Speaker 3: And what's your wife saying about all this?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it can't go on for good. So I mean,

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Speaker 1: I was probably Getna a car wash every week or so,

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Speaker 1: and she's.

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Speaker 3: Like, I don't want to be spending money on the

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Speaker 3: car wash or the gas. Yeah, like, yeah, you should

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Speaker 3: be applying to jobs rather than like, I mean, honestly

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Speaker 3: what she's saying to you.

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Speaker 1: So a pivotal moment of that was in August of

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty, there's a larger newspaper that came out to

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Speaker 1: run a story which ultimately inspired a couple others that

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Speaker 1: were in a similar boat that were laid off or furloughed,

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Speaker 1: had the equipment and a means to transport it around.

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Speaker 1: A guy named Tom, a guy named Pete first two volunteers,

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Speaker 1: and so I was able to distribute out the tasks

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Speaker 1: at the same time from that same During that same period,

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Speaker 1: I heard from a local orthopedic surgeon office, and it

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Speaker 1: was brilliant on his behalf right, because his demographic is

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Speaker 1: mostly like older adults with back issues and stuff. And

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Speaker 1: he saw a clip of me somewhere with like lifting

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Speaker 1: up my mower putting in the back of the family jeep.

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Speaker 1: And so they purchased a six by twelve enclosed trailer

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Speaker 1: with like branding and everything, and of course we slapped

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Speaker 1: their logo on it. They're called the One Oak Medical.

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Speaker 1: So I was literally I was literally able to lug

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Speaker 1: around this trailer on the back of my jeep within

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Speaker 1: a matter of a couple of months of just doing something.

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Speaker 1: And it wasn't even a nonprofit yet.

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Speaker 3: And you didn't reach out to this person. They reached out.

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Speaker 1: They reach out to me, doctor Mahmoud. So I had

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Speaker 1: a chance to like visit with them, and they gave

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Speaker 1: me like a free like like check up and stuff

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Speaker 1: and a free back brace. So that was cool just

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Speaker 1: to keep going. And I still have it in my

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Speaker 1: in my driveway just pulling stuff around, so that that

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Speaker 1: was like a game changer right there, just not having

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Speaker 1: to use our family jeep. And so from there, I'm like,

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Speaker 1: you know, maybe you keep going see where this goes,

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Speaker 1: and you never know who's watching. And I guess one

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Speaker 1: thing after another, like a nationwide news thing picked it up,

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Speaker 1: like CBS Saturday Morning. Yeah, and for the name, but

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Speaker 1: it was Nancy Chen was one of the was the

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Speaker 1: the woman that was there in person. But yeah, a

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Speaker 1: producer like left me a voicemail. I'm like, is this real?

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Speaker 1: Like I have to like listen to it a couple

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Speaker 1: of times and call back, and it was like a

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Speaker 1: week later they scheduled a shoot at a couple homes

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Speaker 1: of guys that we were doing, and both homeowners were

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Speaker 1: gracious enough to also take part in that, and that

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00:21:04,240 --> 00:21:07,800
Speaker 1: just blew things up, Like, uh, I'm still trying to

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Speaker 1: I think, to this day, I'm still trying to process

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Speaker 1: that surreal like thinking back, like I I I try

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Speaker 1: to like start up like these businesses, and I might

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Speaker 1: have sold one for a decent amount, nothing crazy, but

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Speaker 1: mostly failed. Like it was all like digital stuff, and

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Speaker 1: I can understand what it's like to receive any form

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Speaker 1: of media mentioned, So I didn't take it for granted, right,

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Speaker 1: and so I wanted to kind of parlay that into

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Speaker 1: something almost bigger than myself, Like.

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Speaker 3: So what happened in that moment?

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Speaker 1: Like I started, I'm getting like, well, first off, I

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Speaker 1: gave the heads up to like my personal network that

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Speaker 1: this is airing tomorrow, and like after it aired, I

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Speaker 1: got a video text message from a friend that lives

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Speaker 1: in California showing the video in his living room with

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Speaker 1: his little toddler looking at it, and I'm like, is

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Speaker 1: this really happening? Like I'm like, I'm actually like, there's

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Speaker 1: this kid here like absorbing something two thousand miles away

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Speaker 1: from where I live. I'm like, and then I'm getting

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Speaker 1: I get a video from my step mom with my

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Speaker 1: father who was in his later stages, sitting in the

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Speaker 1: living room or kitchen with with my half brother, half sister,

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Speaker 1: seeing him like in tears, which you never really saw

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Speaker 1: a whole lot of, and like I remember him saying,

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Speaker 1: that's your brother. And I still have that video in

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Speaker 1: my my phone. I look at it.

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Speaker 3: Here and there and right now talk about it.

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Speaker 1: No, he I knew that he was just proud of me,

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Speaker 1: and I think he saw what I was, I guess

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Speaker 1: trying to do in that moment because thinking about our

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00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:56,840
Speaker 1: own mortality. And so that's that's what personal motivation that

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Speaker 1: keeps me me going, keeps me going knowing that he's

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Speaker 1: still proud and looking down and living through me. So

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Speaker 1: I just want to keep making them proud. So in

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Speaker 1: that yeah, So that news story just opened up Pandora's

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00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:16,679
Speaker 1: box in a good in a good way. I'm hearing

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Speaker 1: from people everywhere from California to Texas looking for help,

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Speaker 1: wanting to help, donations like you're hearing like my VENMO

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Speaker 1: that I had set up there like just chink chin,

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00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:37,360
Speaker 1: and I've started to hear from perfect strangers and connections

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Speaker 1: saying you should actually make this into like a nonprofit,

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Speaker 1: And I looked into it and ultimately started a GoFundMe

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Speaker 1: that and now allowed for us to create the five

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Speaker 1: oh one C three that it is today.

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Speaker 3: That's kind of funny too. You didn't think about it

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00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:54,119
Speaker 3: before the interview dropped.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I didn't know where Again, I was just

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Speaker 1: following my heart. Yeah, kept mowing and yeah, just from

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Speaker 1: that point think just.

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Speaker 3: So what were the volume of like do you have

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Speaker 3: any sets of it? If people reaching out either in

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Speaker 3: total or how many looking a volunteer, how many looking

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Speaker 3: for help?

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Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you, at least to this present day,

414
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Speaker 1: that business phone number that I had set up, we

415
00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:23,240
Speaker 1: tracked over ten thousand phone calls to date last time

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Speaker 1: to date through this past season. Wow. So this past

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Speaker 1: year alone, three thousand phone calls have been tracked. Going

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Speaker 1: back to my advertising days, we had a voicemail tracking

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Speaker 1: system that I was able to have donated like an

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Speaker 1: enterprise software where we have like five hundred free minutes

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Speaker 1: per month and just putting a lot of the ducks

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Speaker 1: in a row. To this day, there's been multiple iterations

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Speaker 1: like focus a lot on the technology, have reinvested everything,

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Speaker 1: haven't taken a dime for myself. It's all just volunteer based, all.

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Speaker 3: Right, So keep telling us how it grew and how

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Speaker 3: to develop.

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Speaker 1: An interesting An interesting part that definitely helped get things

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Speaker 1: going was I was creating like these partnerships, like to

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Speaker 1: a degree, like officially unofficially, some with like my network

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Speaker 1: that I've already built up, right, So I mentioned that

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Speaker 1: voicemail translation I'm sorry, the voicemail tracking platform that I

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Speaker 1: had worked with in the past from the ad tech space.

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Speaker 1: And then there was also someone else in my network

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Speaker 1: that worked for like a background screening platform and partner

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00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:44,639
Speaker 1: with them in order to help like speak to people

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Speaker 1: that might be hesitant to receive a volunteer. So we

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Speaker 1: wanted to at the time screen volunteers. Fast forward to today,

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Speaker 1: we don't do that anymore because we have our own

439
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:56,920
Speaker 1: mechanisms to do the screening of individuals that want to help.

440
00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:00,840
Speaker 1: But in that moment, they're based out of Houston, Texas area,

441
00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:07,640
Speaker 1: and so we announced this unofficial partnership on LinkedIn that

442
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:12,640
Speaker 1: just by chance, some other volunteers saw this announcement and

443
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:17,119
Speaker 1: that person this, there's this woman named Lauren who is

444
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:20,000
Speaker 1: based out of Houston, laid off, a mother of two,

445
00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:24,840
Speaker 1: signed up and offered to help and got her set up.

446
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:28,760
Speaker 1: And I followed that same methodology I did with for

447
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:32,800
Speaker 1: myself just to generate some leads, to generate leads in

448
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:37,479
Speaker 1: the Houston area, sixty five in older five miles, and

449
00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:41,439
Speaker 1: built up like a portfolio for this woman on her

450
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:44,120
Speaker 1: behalf with like you know, I set up a profile.

451
00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 1: This is all manual, by the way. Like I set

452
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:48,959
Speaker 1: up like a profile for Lauren, and she had like

453
00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:52,919
Speaker 1: five or six seniors that she was helping in the

454
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 1: Houston community. And I was proactive. I reached out to

455
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 1: like a few different news stations in Houston that ultimately

456
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:05,800
Speaker 1: found it to be interesting a woman, a mother of

457
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:10,119
Speaker 1: two laid off helping out seniors, and they did like

458
00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:12,320
Speaker 1: a plug on her. So I was able to like

459
00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 1: repurpose that for our social media and like start showing

460
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 1: like clips. And that was just when we had Facebook

461
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:23,320
Speaker 1: so fast forwards today I've we have six active social

462
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:28,080
Speaker 1: media channels like building up content and so that was

463
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:30,800
Speaker 1: like how we built up like started like these pockets

464
00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:34,120
Speaker 1: of areas. So we have like from that segment, more

465
00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:38,520
Speaker 1: people signing up from Houston and volunteers and so one

466
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 1: of our most I like to call him a Vallin star.

467
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:43,880
Speaker 1: His name is Jim. I think he saw like one

468
00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:49,480
Speaker 1: of Lauren's plugs and he's this guy is a machine.

469
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 1: He's been going NonStop helping like a disabled war veteran

470
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:56,680
Speaker 1: in Houston and a couple others that we've sent his way.

471
00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: We've been able to get him some equipment upgraded, so

472
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 1: all these little.

473
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:06,560
Speaker 2: Things we'll be right back.

474
00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 1: Again. We just started doing mowing. While we're on premise,

475
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 1: people are asking us about other services we might not

476
00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: specialize in, which inspired us to add all these other

477
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:54,040
Speaker 1: service offerings to the volunteer side and the client side. Effectively,

478
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:57,440
Speaker 1: we operate almost like a matchmaker for people that are

479
00:28:57,440 --> 00:28:59,160
Speaker 1: looking for help and people.

480
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:02,520
Speaker 3: That want to help or other things. I'm sure, but.

481
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:08,800
Speaker 1: Leaf removal, snow removal. We're also getting requests for like

482
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:16,120
Speaker 1: home services such as pest control, tree removal, door widening,

483
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:19,360
Speaker 1: so like not saying that we're offering it, we're at

484
00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 1: least collecting this information with hopes to make more connections

485
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,200
Speaker 1: with people to make these kinds of referrals. Maybe if

486
00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:27,920
Speaker 1: they can't do it for free, maybe they can offer

487
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:31,520
Speaker 1: some deep senior citizen military veterans discount. We're kind of

488
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 1: like the tip of the glacier, building the trust with

489
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:37,520
Speaker 1: people coming to their properties with hopes that we can

490
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:42,880
Speaker 1: maybe establish this network of other professionals or volunteers that

491
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:47,719
Speaker 1: might specialize in these things. Yeah. So, like, for instance,

492
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:51,160
Speaker 1: we had a guy in Minnesota that went around to

493
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:54,280
Speaker 1: do twelve different homes when it was a bad snowstorm,

494
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:59,720
Speaker 1: and that got some publicity which helped us attract more

495
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 1: vo tiers in Minnesota. So you follow that sit I've

496
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 1: been following that same method in terms of earned media

497
00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:12,240
Speaker 1: and utilizing social media to help get the word out.

498
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:14,320
Speaker 3: And ultimately do more good at the end of the day.

499
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:17,680
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, And then like again like yeah, just more

500
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:21,200
Speaker 1: than anything is the impacts. Right. We've been able to

501
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:25,440
Speaker 1: track conservatively two thousand unique homes that we've been to,

502
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:30,640
Speaker 1: and that's not accounting for some that are doing regular.

503
00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:35,760
Speaker 3: Visits like summer cutting these folks as grass every week

504
00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 3: or every other weeks on an ongoing basis.

505
00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 1: Right, And one thing that we you know, there's been

506
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:43,800
Speaker 1: a lot of learning lessons along the way in terms

507
00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:47,640
Speaker 1: of expectations. So one of the things that we've we've

508
00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 1: implemented is our expectations of service language, ensuring people know

509
00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:56,200
Speaker 1: that we're not a replacement for landscapers. We do what

510
00:30:56,240 --> 00:31:01,360
Speaker 1: we can when we can, almost as temporary relief. But

511
00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 1: there is exceptional cases where again we just provide the

512
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:11,480
Speaker 1: leads and we provide volunteer accident insurance coverage to volunteers.

513
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 1: We've been able to send yard signs to show neighbors

514
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:20,560
Speaker 1: like what's going on, like why someone's there, sending out

515
00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:23,800
Speaker 1: a tire through some of the funds raised, but ultimately

516
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:27,440
Speaker 1: just providing some ounts of relief. But there is exceptional

517
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 1: cases where people have more time than others. Recently retired

518
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:36,160
Speaker 1: super active I have some guys that are going around

519
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:41,760
Speaker 1: regularly logging like tens. It's not hundreds of hours with

520
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:45,760
Speaker 1: dozens of regular repeat clients. They're not as tech savvy

521
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:50,200
Speaker 1: enough to like log into our platform and track their

522
00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:53,120
Speaker 1: hours and report back to us. So we're doing the

523
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:56,440
Speaker 1: best we can to conservatively at least track the visits

524
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,240
Speaker 1: that are being made. But we've at least made strides

525
00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:03,760
Speaker 1: with the technology allowing for volunteers to log into our dashboard,

526
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:07,840
Speaker 1: add their hours, and talk about their experience, upload before

527
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:10,440
Speaker 1: and after photos us In the past, it was myself

528
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:13,800
Speaker 1: for one of our back end volunteers reaching out trying

529
00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:16,960
Speaker 1: to like pry that information or remind them. So now

530
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:20,719
Speaker 1: we have the website as well as an actual SMS

531
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:24,080
Speaker 1: texting feature where they can organically just text photos to

532
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:27,680
Speaker 1: a phone number we have and it recognizes their phone

533
00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 1: number that's attached to their account, so we can log

534
00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:34,440
Speaker 1: that information. Then we just have like a templated sequence

535
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:38,959
Speaker 1: of like robotic questions that are automatically logging it. So

536
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 1: as I'm speaking to you now, connections are potentially being made.

537
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:45,120
Speaker 1: I just saw it, like five in the morning, we

538
00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:48,000
Speaker 1: have a volunteer nearby that is looking for help. Can

539
00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:50,720
Speaker 1: you be of assistance? Came a long way to get

540
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:52,720
Speaker 1: it to this point, Like there's so many parts that

541
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:57,400
Speaker 1: have had to have come together, between having volunteers nearby

542
00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:01,360
Speaker 1: but also having like the technology to detect someone is nearby.

543
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:04,320
Speaker 1: It was a couple of years ago I literally had

544
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 1: virtual paid assistants super part time on the books, manually

545
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 1: typing in Google Maps for someone that might be nearby

546
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:15,360
Speaker 1: that we have like this huge Excel list. We have

547
00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:19,120
Speaker 1: over one thy four hundred actively enlisted volunteers all across

548
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:25,400
Speaker 1: the USA and even some in other countries, and we

549
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:28,160
Speaker 1: actually have like a volunt there's an actual visual map

550
00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:31,840
Speaker 1: now updating in real time. If and when they're reviewed

551
00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 1: and approved, automatically it pins them into our visual map

552
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:39,200
Speaker 1: and link. You can zoom in like like pins and

553
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:42,320
Speaker 1: zoom and see their profile in their general area. Obviously

554
00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:45,360
Speaker 1: thinking about like privacy, so it just shows like a

555
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:50,160
Speaker 1: general vicinity. But to be able to have someone sign

556
00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 1: up and for us to alert someone like so proud

557
00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 1: of how far we come. There's still a lot to

558
00:33:56,440 --> 00:34:00,960
Speaker 1: be done. I mentioned the two thousand or so homes

559
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:05,280
Speaker 1: we've been to, but we've had way more requests than

560
00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:08,000
Speaker 1: we can handle, So still so much that could be

561
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:10,120
Speaker 1: done in terms of the supply side. There's a big

562
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:13,239
Speaker 1: demand for our service, have you know we've put a

563
00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:15,840
Speaker 1: lot of effort into also, like some of the search

564
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 1: engine optimization as well.

565
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's an amazing tech platform you built and I

566
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,120
Speaker 3: know you you're back and played. You've been working for

567
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:27,200
Speaker 3: you know, many years now, so it's like, you know,

568
00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:29,960
Speaker 3: you you have a normal job, and yet you've been

569
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:33,319
Speaker 3: building out this you know, tech platform and running this thing,

570
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:36,400
Speaker 3: Like are you doing this night's weekends? Like it seems

571
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:37,719
Speaker 3: like a lot of work to build out.

572
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:42,440
Speaker 1: It's very overwhelming. I saw a quote somewhere, it was

573
00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:45,360
Speaker 1: actually at the post office the other day that said

574
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:46,719
Speaker 1: that at the end of the day, you're doing the

575
00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:48,800
Speaker 1: best you can with what you got, and that's good enough.

576
00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:52,759
Speaker 1: So I found myself like, I feel like, if I

577
00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:56,160
Speaker 1: didn't have some of these technology automation improvements in place,

578
00:34:56,600 --> 00:34:58,720
Speaker 1: there's no way it would have been able to sustain

579
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 1: without because obviously there's no paid salaries employees, Like mending

580
00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:06,200
Speaker 1: the ship, a lot of it still falls on me,

581
00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:09,600
Speaker 1: and there's still a human element, right, So yeah, there's

582
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:12,439
Speaker 1: there's definitely I'm putting it way more time into it,

583
00:35:12,880 --> 00:35:15,440
Speaker 1: but thankfully I have my employer's blessing to do this.

584
00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:18,520
Speaker 1: On the side, there's no conflict as time permits. I

585
00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 1: have my wife's support and family support to do that.

586
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:24,680
Speaker 1: And of course I have a four and a half

587
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:28,080
Speaker 1: year old son at home and a newborn that's two

588
00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:34,520
Speaker 1: months old, so that's definitely tiring. But I yeah. Another

589
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:37,759
Speaker 1: thing I also forgot to mention as part of the technology,

590
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:42,360
Speaker 1: we receive the grants from a local credit union to

591
00:35:43,200 --> 00:35:48,080
Speaker 1: improve on a couple of things. One is scoring the

592
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:52,239
Speaker 1: homeowner leads that come in and helping determine the ones

593
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:54,200
Speaker 1: that are the most in need versus the ones that

594
00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:57,200
Speaker 1: are not. So we ask everything under the sun to

595
00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:00,319
Speaker 1: ensure that it's not someone that could probably have forward

596
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:03,360
Speaker 1: it or do it themselves, or might be taking advantage

597
00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:06,520
Speaker 1: of it. So we try to prioritize low to moderate

598
00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:09,759
Speaker 1: household income for starters. And of course, so many other

599
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:11,880
Speaker 1: things we take into account is if they live alone,

600
00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:16,480
Speaker 1: or if they have children that are physically abled. So

601
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:21,879
Speaker 1: there's like this algorithm in place that helps us find

602
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:23,799
Speaker 1: the ones that are most pressing. So it's a form

603
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:26,680
Speaker 1: of arbitrage just getting around to the ones that are

604
00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:28,440
Speaker 1: in need. And of course we have to take into

605
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:32,960
Speaker 1: consideration if we have the coverage for it. And I

606
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:37,200
Speaker 1: mentioned the so a few ways that homeowners are reaching

607
00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:40,360
Speaker 1: out to us. It's through the website, through social media,

608
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:44,360
Speaker 1: through email, and through voicemail. We try to get everyone

609
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:47,120
Speaker 1: to sign up on the website because it just has

610
00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:50,120
Speaker 1: everything that we need. But if they're reaching out over

611
00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:52,840
Speaker 1: the phone a little less tech savvy. We had another

612
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:57,799
Speaker 1: grant that enabled us to automate translate what is being

613
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:01,160
Speaker 1: said over voicemail in real time. They're telling us the

614
00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:04,800
Speaker 1: ZIP code, which allows for us to detect our nearby location.

615
00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:07,600
Speaker 1: So we follow that same logic that we do with

616
00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:10,719
Speaker 1: the website to alert somebody in real time that there's

617
00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:15,440
Speaker 1: a voicemail nearby, and we pass along that voicemail recording

618
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:18,399
Speaker 1: to the volunteers that they can listen to and dial

619
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:22,600
Speaker 1: back directly. Thinking back, yeah, thinking back to a couple

620
00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:24,400
Speaker 1: of years ago, I had like a call center agent

621
00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:28,120
Speaker 1: for overseas dialing back these voicemails, trying to make a

622
00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:32,200
Speaker 1: connection and asking this information. As costly, it's not sustainable.

623
00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:35,680
Speaker 1: So it's been a year of as they call it,

624
00:37:35,719 --> 00:37:40,880
Speaker 1: a year of efficiency and automation, just trying to scale

625
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,240
Speaker 1: up this kindness platform.

626
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:46,320
Speaker 3: And you mentioned in a minute ago how many total

627
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:48,920
Speaker 3: requests have come in to date. I don't think you

628
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:49,920
Speaker 3: said the number.

629
00:37:49,680 --> 00:37:54,040
Speaker 1: But multiply what we've been able to do by five,

630
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:57,360
Speaker 1: it's like one in every five, so about ten thousand

631
00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:01,719
Speaker 1: lifetime to date. So there's lots of work to be

632
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:06,040
Speaker 1: done in terms of recruiting help. But we're improving, Like

633
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:12,600
Speaker 1: you know, I've we revamped our intake. I had help

634
00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:17,839
Speaker 1: with a Google Translate designer to fix our navigation and

635
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 1: the experience. Hired on some developers overseas to just improve that.

636
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:25,359
Speaker 1: There's still work. I'm getting emails even to this day

637
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:28,560
Speaker 1: about certain uploads not working or not taking long enough.

638
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:30,879
Speaker 1: So there's all these like little intricacies. There's a lot

639
00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:31,520
Speaker 1: that goes on.

640
00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:34,919
Speaker 3: Under the hood, and you've got another job.

641
00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:38,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a lot.

642
00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:39,720
Speaker 3: It's impressive.

643
00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:46,680
Speaker 1: Thank you. It's hard. Again, There's been times where I

644
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:52,839
Speaker 1: thought about shutting it down. I don't there's nothing left.

645
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:55,480
Speaker 1: I don't have anything to prove to anyone. It's I'm

646
00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:59,600
Speaker 1: challenging myself to see how far it can go. And

647
00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:01,600
Speaker 1: when we make those connections and I get like those

648
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:06,040
Speaker 1: thank yous not just from homeowners and their neighbors, but

649
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:10,960
Speaker 1: volunteers for making those for helping set that up, because

650
00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:15,760
Speaker 1: I'll echo like feedback from one specific volunteer named Tom

651
00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:19,120
Speaker 1: that said he might have only spent ten minutes doing

652
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:23,520
Speaker 1: long care for this military veteran and then ended up

653
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:26,319
Speaker 1: speaking for twenty thirty minutes afterwards. With the guy like

654
00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:28,560
Speaker 1: speaking his zero off and he's like, what about the

655
00:39:28,640 --> 00:39:29,720
Speaker 1: human connection.

656
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:33,360
Speaker 3: Which that veteran probably needed too. For sure, it's a

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Speaker 3: big loneliness epidemic going on in the country.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And that concludes part one of Alex's conversation with

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Speaker 2: Brian Schwartz, and you don't want to miss part two

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00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:51,560
Speaker 2: that's now available to listen to. Together, guys, we can

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00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:55,279
Speaker 2: change this country and it starts with you. I'll see

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Speaker 2: in part two.

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Speaker 1: You don't think to