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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.

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Speaker 1: And we continue now with part two of our conversation

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Speaker 1: with Darren Babcock, right after these brief messages from our

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Speaker 1: general sponsors. All right, so do you get out of

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Speaker 1: rehab after the prayer and the work and the awakening

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Speaker 1: that is in you. It feels like maybe you're able

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Speaker 1: to get past all the shame and everything because of this.

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Speaker 2: That's a daily battle too, really, and every time I

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Speaker 2: slip up, I'm like, you know, the enemy says you're

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Speaker 2: just a fraud. Well, are you able to forgive yourself?

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Speaker 2: I think it's a daily thing. I mean, I wish

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Speaker 2: it was a one time for me. It's not a

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Speaker 2: one time thing. And then everything's sunny again. Every time

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Speaker 2: I see my kids, you know, I wonder I have

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Speaker 2: like what they love me, so they're not going to

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Speaker 2: blast me with what happened in that. But you know,

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Speaker 2: I hurt the people I love the most and the

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Speaker 2: people that I have been given responsibility to protect.

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Speaker 1: But grace is about redemption, and surely you believe that

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Speaker 1: I do, and I have to.

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Speaker 2: I have to remind myself that every day. It's not

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Speaker 2: something that I give money for and I have as

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Speaker 2: a possession. I have to I have to develop a

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Speaker 2: daily practice so that the voices in my head that

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Speaker 2: the truth is louder than the deceiver. Okay, And some

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Speaker 2: days it's quiet, Some days it's quiet. Some days it's quiet,

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Speaker 2: and others it's not.

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Speaker 1: If you get cut off in traffic leaving here today,

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Speaker 1: the voice will come up.

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Speaker 2: Maybe and then the voice, the true voice over writes it.

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Speaker 2: That's why it doesn't happen. But it's still I get it.

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Speaker 2: A process that's so interesting.

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Speaker 1: I could literally talk for ten hours with you about this,

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Speaker 1: and maybe one day we will, hopefully we would. I

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Speaker 1: would love to do that. We got to move on

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Speaker 1: to your out of rehab.

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Speaker 2: And everything was different, Like my whole life was built

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Speaker 2: around relationships that I could leverage to get what I wanted,

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Speaker 2: accomplishing what I wanted, and doing what I wanted. And

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Speaker 2: the thing about this rebirth for me is that all

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Speaker 2: of a sudden, I cared about other people, like really cared,

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Speaker 2: and I didn't care about money or status.

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Speaker 1: That was the exact opposite. Yeah, so what do you

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Speaker 1: do with that?

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Speaker 2: Like every everything that I desired in my life had

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Speaker 2: been flipped on its head, and there were these new

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Speaker 2: desires that I don't know what to do with.

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Speaker 1: Well, I read that you sold off the Slashki's business

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Speaker 1: and then you got a really good job. So you're

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Speaker 1: back on track, right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well back on back on some tracks, you know

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Speaker 2: that really good job.

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Speaker 1: Well you're healthier at least.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And I have a I have a relationship with

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Speaker 2: like I am, I am centered. But the battle doesn't

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Speaker 2: end there, right, and so enemy is what his mission

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Speaker 2: statement is the same, to still kill and destroy through deception.

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Speaker 2: And so all of a sudden God had changed my heart,

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Speaker 2: but I got placed right back in the environment that

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Speaker 2: drew me back into. If it is to be, it's

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Speaker 2: up to.

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Speaker 1: Me, which is the corporate world and hammered it. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: and who were he hammering it with?

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Speaker 2: And uh, you know, Blackstone Group was owned Hilton Hotels

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Speaker 2: and a bunch of fancy things. So when we travel, they.

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Speaker 1: Know your name like it' that's an ego thing.

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Speaker 2: It's alluring and it's an elixir and it becomes this

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Speaker 2: who are you and who's are you?

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Speaker 1: That that wrestling match continues. So ultimately you're working for

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Speaker 1: subsidiary of a Blackstone Group Company, which is Blackstone's what

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Speaker 1: a one two billion dollar organization? No, yeah, how many?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's probably approaching a trillion, now.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So Blackstone Group's ridiculous. They're they're their annual income

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Speaker 1: is greater than the GDP of more than half the

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Speaker 1: country's in the world, and you're working for a subsidiary

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Speaker 1: of it running it. And that's what I mean when

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Speaker 1: I'm back on track. You're healthy, you're not doing drugs,

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Speaker 1: you've got a great job. But you have an epiphany

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Speaker 1: while they're which is well, I'm not sure exactly which

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Speaker 1: one you're alluding to, but the one that says, I

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Speaker 1: can't believe I'm working this much and fly this much

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Speaker 1: and I have much work life violence.

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Speaker 2: It was this. It was this constant tuggle war about

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Speaker 2: I don't know what else to do. I have a

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Speaker 2: responsibility as a Christian to provide for my family. The

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Speaker 2: skill set that God's given me always tends to be

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Speaker 2: things that require me to be out and about, meeting

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Speaker 2: and working with people and travel. And yet I had

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Speaker 2: this longing to foster relationships and to talk about life

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Speaker 2: and the things that truly matter. And so I didn't

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Speaker 2: know what to do. So I started kind of going

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Speaker 2: on short term mission trips. I wound up asking permission

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Speaker 2: if I could start a thing inside our company that

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Speaker 2: I called soul Shine Sessions that you know, we're we

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Speaker 2: spend a third of our life at work and more,

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Speaker 2: and it's all about work, and people like me are

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Speaker 2: wrestling through life, and where do you do that? You know,

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Speaker 2: the other thirds asleep and the other third you're doing stuff.

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Speaker 2: So when do you spend time to really wrestle through life?

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Speaker 2: And so we started these things called soul Shine Sessions.

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Speaker 2: And I was just searching for a way to tap

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Speaker 2: into what God had planted in my heart when everything

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Speaker 2: from the world was still trying to anchor me back

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Speaker 2: to what it was. And so I was working towards

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Speaker 2: pulling there. And I think in hindsight, I wasn't mature

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Speaker 2: enough for God to entrust me with a mission that

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Speaker 2: he was going me to that And so some of

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Speaker 2: these were little glimpses of things to come. And then

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Speaker 2: when the friend invited me to Bonton, it was providence,

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Speaker 2: without question.

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Speaker 1: Perfect segue. So, before we get to the fact that

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Speaker 1: you founder of Bonton Farms and all that you're doing,

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Speaker 1: now the redemptive part of this remarkable journey that life

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Speaker 1: has taken you through and where you've ended up. Let's

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Speaker 1: just talk about Bonton in terms of a neighborhood. What

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Speaker 1: Bonton is. Give us all an understanding of how Bonton

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Speaker 1: even exists and why, and what it looks like, maybe

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Speaker 1: a little bit of demographics of Bonton prior to you

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Speaker 1: showing up there, and then also why you even showed

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Speaker 1: up there in the first place.

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Speaker 2: Well, Bonton is a freedman's town. Before it was Bonton,

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Speaker 2: it was just On. It was a land mass south

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Speaker 2: of downtown Dallas that's on the bank of a Trinity River,

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Speaker 2: and that there the whole fairgrounds. It's went three and

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Speaker 2: a half miles straight south of the fairgrounds.

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Speaker 1: Right when I was reading about this, I was, you know,

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Speaker 1: I've driven through Dallas one hundred times on business, and

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Speaker 1: I remember that old fairs will back to the right,

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Speaker 1: downtown pretty downtown, to the left, and then back to

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Speaker 1: the right. And I actually had a customer back in

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Speaker 1: there twenty five years ago that made kind of crappy cabinets,

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Speaker 1: and he was about a mile back behind the fairground

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Speaker 1: and it was crazy because you could be in downtown

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Speaker 1: Dallas and driving around Rolls Royce is passing you and

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Speaker 1: in six minutes, by the time you got past that

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Speaker 1: fair grounds, it's starting to get rough. Is that the

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Speaker 1: area I'm worse? Three miles south of there's worse, And

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Speaker 1: this is I'm sorry to interrupt you, Friedman, go ahead.

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Speaker 2: So you know, after slavery we entered this time called emancipation,

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Speaker 2: and emancipation was all of a sudden I'm free, but

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Speaker 2: what does that mean? Where do I go? And I

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Speaker 2: can't live where there's plumbing or electricity or other existing houses.

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Speaker 2: I wouldn't let me there. Really, you couldn't move into

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Speaker 2: an existing neighborhood A former freed a former slave free,

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Speaker 2: but you're not really free, you're not enslave. But you

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Speaker 2: can't live. You can't just go buy a house next

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Speaker 2: to somebody or rent a house next to somebody. They

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Speaker 2: wouldn't let you move in to their neighborhood. So where

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Speaker 2: could I move? Well, we established the little freedman's towns.

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Speaker 2: This one just happens to be on the bank of

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Speaker 2: a train river because it floods. Nobody else will build there,

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Speaker 2: so we can so it starts this little black community

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Speaker 2: of folks trying to find their way, and like, if

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Speaker 2: you're familiar with the story of Black Wall Street, this

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Speaker 2: happened all a culsa, right, Yeah, happened all across the country,

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Speaker 2: not as profound as Black Wall Street. But what happened.

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Speaker 2: What happens when you have a community with a bunch

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Speaker 2: of folks that can't go to your restaurant, They can't

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Speaker 2: shop at your store, they can't go to your hospital,

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Speaker 2: You can't I can't participate in society. So they had

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Speaker 2: to collaborate and build their own institutions, and so prosperity happened.

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Speaker 2: Black Wall Street's the most notable example of that, but

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Speaker 2: that happened everywhere. If you come to Bonton and walk

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Speaker 2: through it with an eighty five year old neighbor mine

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Speaker 2: or older, they'll tell you that Bonton used to have

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Speaker 2: businesses owned all through the neighborhood from people from that neighborhood,

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Speaker 2: and prosperity happened. And then as prosperity happened, they're like, well,

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Speaker 2: I would like to live in a neighborhood that doesn't

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Speaker 2: flood every spring, and in a neighborhood that's running water

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Speaker 2: and paved streets and maybe some street lights here and there.

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Speaker 2: And so they started trying to buy land and that

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Speaker 2: was met with bombings.

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Speaker 1: So before we had a name met with bombings.

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Speaker 2: Bombings, Bonton was called bombtown before we had the name Bonton.

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Speaker 1: Why because they bombed people would come into their neighborhood

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Speaker 1: and bomb them.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they would bomb the houses that they would try

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Speaker 2: to buy in their neighborhood. Yeah, they bombed them. I'll

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Speaker 2: show you. I've got the old news article clippings. I'll

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Speaker 2: show you when we finish. So the story becomes more

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Speaker 2: tragic because prosperity was happening. You know, at this time,

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Speaker 2: African Americans had the highest intact family rate of any

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Speaker 2: ethnicity in the United States, over eighty percent. There was

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Speaker 2: this flourishing that was happening. This resiliency we talked, you

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Speaker 2: suffer to that degree and survive. That resiliency is going

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Speaker 2: to allow you to build something that's undestructible. And that's

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Speaker 2: what was happening in this era. And then all of

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Speaker 2: a sudden, we have our mayor at the times, the

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Speaker 2: mayor named Wallace Savage. This is fast forwarded to the

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Speaker 2: late forties because the violence that was happening. Our mayor,

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Speaker 2: the federal government came out with a new program for

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Speaker 2: public housing. Our mayor puts there's a book called the Economy.

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Speaker 2: Our mayor Dallas, Dallas, whose name was Wallace Savage at

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Speaker 2: the time, said in the old Dallas Times Herald that

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Speaker 2: in order to prevent the Blacks from moving into our

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Speaker 2: neighborhoods and bringing with them disease and violence, we're applying

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Speaker 2: for federal money to get public housing to keep them

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Speaker 2: where they belong. That's the quote in the Times Herald newspaper.

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Speaker 2: So this happened again. All across the story I'm trying

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Speaker 2: to paint is this isn't just a Bonton story. If

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Speaker 2: when I'm talking think of Bonton as one of the

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Speaker 2: eight hundred and twenty five Bontons across the country that

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Speaker 2: are home to forty million Americans.

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Speaker 1: Happened in this and so when we talk about systematic racism,

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Speaker 1: we need to drop our preconceived notions at the door.

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Speaker 1: We need to quit saying, well, I was born in

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five and I've never done anything like that.

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Speaker 1: And we have to honor and be respectful of and

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Speaker 1: be honest about the truth.

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Speaker 2: So this is important when we start talking about these things.

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Speaker 2: I believe my grandfather used to say that the past

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Speaker 2: is best used as a guiding post, not a hitching post.

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Speaker 1: It's a great souch.

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Speaker 2: So I think that's really important here because it gives

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Speaker 2: us permission to talk about the tragedies of the past

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Speaker 2: without anchoring to.

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Speaker 1: It and becoming a victim. I love that right. The

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Speaker 1: history can be a guiding post, not a hitching post.

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Speaker 2: Because if it becomes a hitching post, we become victims

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Speaker 2: because victims are powerless.

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Speaker 1: And victims are powerless to change.

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Speaker 2: And nothing changes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and so if you're a victim, if you hitch

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Speaker 1: to history, become a victim of it. We need to

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Speaker 1: talk about it from perspective and lessons so we don't

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Speaker 1: repeat these sins. But we're not going to be victims

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Speaker 1: to it by letting the past define us.

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Speaker 2: But here's the good news to me. Also, because what

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Speaker 2: created this was a system, systems can be changed. To me,

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Speaker 2: that's the best news. If this were a people problem,

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Speaker 2: like how do you change people a person at a time.

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Speaker 2: To move forward to where we have a new reality,

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Speaker 2: we don't have to change everybody. God created all of us.

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Speaker 2: In his imags, we're all special. If the system that

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Speaker 2: has created so many people to suffer is a product

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Speaker 2: of that system and not broken people, which I deeply believe,

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Speaker 2: then we can re engineer a system to produce what

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Speaker 2: we want. This guy studied in business school named Edwards Deming.

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Speaker 2: Are you familiar with I love him because an entrepreneur,

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Speaker 2: he doesn't fit the mold.

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Speaker 1: Edwards Deming was a was a.

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Speaker 2: Brilliant man, and during the time of globalization, as Malcolm

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Speaker 2: McLain came up with shipping containers and all that and

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Speaker 2: opened up global markets, Edwards Deming was this guy waven

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Speaker 2: of Red Flag saying, be careful because we in America

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Speaker 2: are going to have more demand than we can meet,

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Speaker 2: and if we don't build processes and systems that are consistent,

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Speaker 2: our quality will go down and we'll lose our place

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Speaker 2: in the marketplace. But nobody cared because money was coming

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Speaker 2: in hand over fist, because at that time American products

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Speaker 2: were the best in the world, and everybody said, go

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Speaker 2: take a high Edwards Demming. And after World War Two,

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Speaker 2: we sent Edwards Deming to rebuild, to be the architect

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Speaker 2: to rebuild the Japanese economy.

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Speaker 1: Is that right?

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Speaker 2: And guess who became the highest quality production country in

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Speaker 2: the world.

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Speaker 1: And when we used to laugh at the thought of

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Speaker 1: Japan replacing American cars did yeah?

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Speaker 2: And TV and whatever.

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Speaker 1: Electronics and whatever they make.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's a Japan's and closed society. And the

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Speaker 2: top business award to this very day you can get

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Speaker 2: as the Edwards Dimming Award. No that seeks to help

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Speaker 2: profound the foundation that he built. But anyway, Demmings has

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Speaker 2: this quote that I think we should anchor to. It says,

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Speaker 2: every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets,

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Speaker 2: so if you don't like the outcome, you change the system.

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Speaker 2: And he says that in the business context because's too

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Speaker 2: often in business when there's a problem, we blame the people.

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Speaker 2: And what he's always saying is look at the system

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Speaker 2: and is it enabling people to be the kind of

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Speaker 2: people you want? But if you look at the people first,

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Speaker 2: there's a problem, You're never going to build a system.

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Speaker 2: You see that in companies like Chick fil A. How

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Speaker 2: do all Chick fil A's operate at such high level

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Speaker 2: efficiency with such consistently day after day They've built.

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Speaker 1: The same, the same amount of money that you see

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Speaker 1: another fast food restaurants when you can hardly even get

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Speaker 1: a burger right.

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Speaker 2: You can't, and people won't even look in the eye.

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Speaker 2: And sometimes they act like you're doing them a favor guy,

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Speaker 2: or you're irritating and for show it up at the

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Speaker 2: But it's so true, and it's the system that provides

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Speaker 2: that stability and consistency.

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Speaker 1: We'll be right back, Okay. So it became bombtown.

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Speaker 2: So it was bombtown, and civil rights happened. And this

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Speaker 2: is really important. This is an opinion of mine. I

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Speaker 2: have nothing to base this on other than anecdotal observational evidence.

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Speaker 2: But what I think happened in our country is civil

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Speaker 2: rights happened at around the same time as well, and

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Speaker 2: people like me said, that was horrible what we went through,

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Speaker 2: but we've overcome it and we can move on now.

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Speaker 2: And then we have these communities like Bonton are like,

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Speaker 2: wait a minute, how can we move on? We have

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Speaker 2: nothing to build from and you took it from us.

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Speaker 2: You took it from us, you burned it out of us,

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Speaker 2: you bombed it out of us, and you've created a

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Speaker 2: whole bunch of systems that don't allow it to be

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Speaker 2: rebuilt red Light. I mean, you could go through all

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Speaker 2: of the Jim Crow stuff that happened. And so we

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Speaker 2: have a portion of America that are like me that

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Speaker 2: were removed from that, that grew up after all that

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Speaker 2: stuff that had happened, and it's like, why can't we

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Speaker 2: just get along? Now? We have civil rights, but we

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Speaker 2: haven't created the we haven't rebuilt the system to produce

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Speaker 2: the kind of foundation where all Americans can thrive. We've

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Speaker 2: left those barriers, that really bad system in place, and

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Speaker 2: it's destroying the lives. You've seen it. When I got

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Speaker 2: to Bonton, the thing that stood out to me is

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Speaker 2: how dangerous everybody told it was, and how I mean

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Speaker 2: you could not drive into Bonton. There's two ways in

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Speaker 2: and two ways out. There's one of them's under the

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Speaker 2: railroad tracks and the other ones under the highway, and

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Speaker 2: they have centuries at those places, and you can't come

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Speaker 2: in and out unless you're from there. It doesn't matter

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Speaker 2: what color you are, at what time, when was in

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Speaker 2: the well when I moved down. It's been that way

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Speaker 2: for a long time. I know people, there's one of

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Speaker 2: my really good friends. I'm walking down at Bonton Farms

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Speaker 2: is on the back of the cul de Sac that

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Speaker 2: abuts the river. So our community is a triangle one

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Speaker 2: point nine to two square miles surrounded by railroad, a highway,

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Speaker 2: and the river. So we're absolutely cut off from everything.

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Speaker 2: Seven minutes from downtown Dallas. And so you can enter

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Speaker 2: from the rail under the railroad, or you can enter

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Speaker 2: on the north end the under the highway, and then

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Speaker 2: it dead ends in the river. So if you get

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Speaker 2: back there, you can't get out. You just can't fight

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Speaker 2: your way out of there. So one Saturday, I'm on

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Speaker 2: the dead end of the cul de Sac and there's

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Speaker 2: this guy down there wandering around and I'm walking off

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Speaker 2: the there's a levee now that protects the community from flooding. That,

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Speaker 2: by the way, wasn't built until the mid nineties. When

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Speaker 2: did public housing come in early fifties.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we talked.

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Speaker 2: I was going to say our early fifties, we built

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Speaker 2: public housing. So we moved poor black families into this place,

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Speaker 2: and we allowed it to flood for another thirty something

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Speaker 2: years until we built the levee system.

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Speaker 1: Hold it. We got to get get to That's what

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Speaker 1: Bonton is. But we've skipped how you got there.

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Speaker 2: So let me tell you, let me wrap up the Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so Bonton at that point in history before public housing,

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Speaker 2: the way that the old timers describe it as rich

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Speaker 2: in community but always materially poor, got it. And again

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Speaker 2: that's important thread to draw because in the time where

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Speaker 2: we were forbidden to participate in the goods and services

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Speaker 2: and economy that existed, we had to create our own

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Speaker 2: and we did. Then all of a sudden, public housing

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Speaker 2: comes in and now you can lose your life by

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Speaker 2: walking down the wrong street with the wrong color on.

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Speaker 2: It's important because that's a man made construct that didn't

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Speaker 2: exist naturally. It's when we intervened and congregated in density,

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Speaker 2: a bunch of people with no resources in one place,

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Speaker 2: we had to fight each other over crumbs. Violence is

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Speaker 2: a product of scarcity, right, so we were scarce before,

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Speaker 2: but before the intervention, we could collaborate and build things.

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Speaker 2: And when that was taken from us, the resources that

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Speaker 2: you give me are the only resources I can get

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Speaker 2: because I can't create resources my own, and so now

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Speaker 2: we fight each other over that. And that's where gangs

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Speaker 2: form from two public housing developments were fighting over crumbs.

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Speaker 2: So this one forms it starts as a click. This

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Speaker 2: one starts as a click. They start fighting each other.

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Speaker 2: They get whose street this is, who can do business

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Speaker 2: on this street and all that, and then that starts

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Speaker 2: to progress and becomes gangs and other things. But that's

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Speaker 2: a man and made construct. So now in Bonton, fast

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Speaker 2: forward to after the projects, when I get introduced to it.

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Speaker 1: Bonton.

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Speaker 2: There's three thousand, eight hundred zip codes in the state

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Speaker 2: of Texas. Bonton, incarcrates the highest percentage of our population

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Speaker 2: than any zip code in the state. We have the

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Speaker 2: second highest team birth rate, highest infant mortality rate, lowest

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Speaker 2: educational attainment, average median household incomes about twenty grand. Started

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Speaker 2: at thirteen grand when I moved in, it's now twenty

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Speaker 2: four grand. We have we suffer from more than double

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Speaker 2: the rate of cancer, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and childhood obesi.

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Speaker 2: Then the county we're in, and if you look at

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Speaker 2: Dallas County as kind of the county that surrounds the

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Speaker 2: city of Dallas, and Bonton's this little donut hole in

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Speaker 2: the middle. Men in our little donut hole will live

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Speaker 2: twelve years less than the average last man in the

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Speaker 2: county that surrounds us.

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Speaker 1: That's Bonton today. That's what I walked into when But

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Speaker 1: why did you walk in? A friend of mine? Well,

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Speaker 1: one God was on me.

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Speaker 2: I was seeking out how to put how to live

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Speaker 2: my life the way I read in the Bible, and

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Speaker 2: I hadn't found it yet. So he's maturing me. But

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Speaker 2: there's this long need I'm looking for something. He's planted

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Speaker 2: that in my heart and I hadn't found it yet.

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Speaker 2: And then one day I'm meeting a friend of mine

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Speaker 2: that is my accountability partner, and all of a sudden

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Speaker 2: and we just sat down and start having a couple

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Speaker 2: of coffee. Said, I'm so sorry I got to go.

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Speaker 2: What do you mean we just sat out? He's like,

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Speaker 2: I am sorry. I promised a friend of mine that

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Speaker 2: I would go down. He had met with through a

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Speaker 2: prison ministry. A guy that was inside prison that got

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Speaker 2: prolled happened to be from Bonton. So he promised him

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Speaker 2: that they would continue that relationship when he got out.

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Speaker 2: So he started going to Bonton to meet with him.

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Speaker 2: And you've seen it in our community. We don't encourage

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Speaker 2: each other, we do the opposite. How can we beat

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Speaker 2: everybody down? Because nobody feels good about themselves, and if

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Speaker 2: anybody starts to rise, it makes me feel bad. So

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Speaker 2: if kids get good grades in our community, they'll get

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Speaker 2: beat up and up getting off the school bus. It's

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Speaker 2: like this drain. But we're all human beings made in

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Speaker 2: the image of our creator, and we're made to be

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Speaker 2: in community, and we're made to nurture and encourage one another.

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Speaker 2: So it's we all desire that, whether you experience it

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Speaker 2: or not. So my friend was a Barnabas. He was

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Speaker 2: a great encourager. And guess what, People just started showing

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Speaker 2: up because they want to be believed in. They want

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Speaker 2: to be told that they're a child of God, they

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Speaker 2: want to be told that they're capable, and so people

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Speaker 2: start showing up. Nobody's ever heard that before. The next thing,

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Speaker 2: you know, this guy's out numbered. We get invited in

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Speaker 2: to help him start meeting people that we had never

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Speaker 2: come in contact before. That we're just thirsty to say

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Speaker 2: you're special just because of who God says you are,

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Speaker 2: and people thirsty to death to be told that.

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Speaker 1: And then you decide I'm going to become a resident

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Speaker 1: of Bonta.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, you.

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Speaker 1: Know, we.

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Speaker 2: Go down there for two hours on our Saturday and

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Speaker 2: bring our little breakfast and then leave and all that

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Speaker 2: changed is we felt a little bit better about ourselves.

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Speaker 1: That's what. That's what. That's what I had to wrestle

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Speaker 1: with our listeners who are regular listeners will hear this

435
00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:19,800
Speaker 1: and understand and spile. If you don't understand it, I'll

436
00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:22,280
Speaker 1: tell you about it later. But that's what we call a.

437
00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,320
Speaker 2: Turkey person Alex just shared that with me before. It's

438
00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:28,800
Speaker 2: a beautiful metaphor, that's what it is. Yeah, yeah, So

439
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:32,080
Speaker 2: you were feeling turkey personish. I was feeling like a

440
00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:35,560
Speaker 2: worse than a turkey, you know. It was I'm trying

441
00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:39,520
Speaker 2: to not be selfish, and yet again I'm being deceived

442
00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:42,159
Speaker 2: into being selfish through the act of trying to be

443
00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:47,879
Speaker 2: obedient and doing good. So I went there's a funny

444
00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:52,320
Speaker 2: story before this was when this was all firmitting in

445
00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:56,479
Speaker 2: my head, and I went on a business trip and

446
00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:00,280
Speaker 2: I bought a USA today and I had had a

447
00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:03,720
Speaker 2: chance to read it. So on the way home, I

448
00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:06,199
Speaker 2: pull it out on my briefcase. I'd sit back in

449
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:10,159
Speaker 2: my first class seat, open up my paper, and in

450
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:12,560
Speaker 2: the side the front cover was this article about a

451
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:15,400
Speaker 2: guy named Arch Wes. You ever heard of Arch West? No,

452
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:21,040
Speaker 2: he was from Dallas, and the story was that in

453
00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:24,320
Speaker 2: I can't remember that. I think it was in the sixties.

454
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:29,119
Speaker 2: Arch took his family on a vacation to California, southern California,

455
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:31,800
Speaker 2: and they're walking up and down the beach and there's

456
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:34,360
Speaker 2: all these street vendors and one of the vendors had

457
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:37,200
Speaker 2: a really long line. So they made the assumption that

458
00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:39,640
Speaker 2: that must be something special. We should be patient wait

459
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:41,920
Speaker 2: in line to see what it is. So they did,

460
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:44,159
Speaker 2: and when they get back home, Arch cleans out his

461
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,240
Speaker 2: garage and he is determined to try to make whatever

462
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:51,399
Speaker 2: that was they had, and in doing so, invented doritos.

463
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:56,400
Speaker 2: You're kidding me, And so Arch winds up selling Dourdo's

464
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:59,920
Speaker 2: to PepsiCo, and the story goes on to talk about

465
00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:03,439
Speaker 2: Arch wasn't a one trick pony. He was a brilliant businessman.

466
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:07,560
Speaker 2: There was a point in time where the Pace Pecani

467
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:11,200
Speaker 2: sauce had lagging sales. I believe his name was Daniel Pace.

468
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:14,440
Speaker 2: One of the sons called Arch and said, look our

469
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:17,320
Speaker 2: sales that we've tried everything and we continue to lose shape.

470
00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:19,600
Speaker 2: Market share, will you take a look at it and

471
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:22,159
Speaker 2: let me know what you do. He called him back

472
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:25,560
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks later and said, the problem is

473
00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:27,960
Speaker 2: is that your pacani sauce is on the isile with

474
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:30,160
Speaker 2: the ketchup, and when people buy their bag of chips,

475
00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:31,959
Speaker 2: by the time they get to the ketchup, all they

476
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:34,879
Speaker 2: forgot and you're missing opportunities. You need to talk to

477
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:37,480
Speaker 2: the stores and see if they'll let you relocate your

478
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 2: pekani sauce near the chips, which is now what we

479
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:44,840
Speaker 2: know is cross merchandising, but then was a novel thing.

480
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:49,000
Speaker 2: And so the story concludes with as they lower Arch

481
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,800
Speaker 2: into his resting place, his family and Coke workers stood

482
00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:54,280
Speaker 2: around his gravesite and sprinkled Grido's on his castle.

483
00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:56,800
Speaker 1: I love it.

484
00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:01,399
Speaker 2: And what God used that to speak to me was

485
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:04,080
Speaker 2: I'm sitting on this first class flight coming from this

486
00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:07,640
Speaker 2: big business meeting thinking I'm kind of a big deal

487
00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:11,159
Speaker 2: and no matter what I would have done in my

488
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:15,280
Speaker 2: professional career, it would never be as significant as emtdridos.

489
00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:18,440
Speaker 2: And even if it were, if that's what I had

490
00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:21,560
Speaker 2: to if that's what people had to sprinkle on my

491
00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 2: casket when my life was over, would I be okay

492
00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:27,399
Speaker 2: with that. So there was all the God was like,

493
00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:30,400
Speaker 2: he was like yelling through a whole bunch of variety

494
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:32,919
Speaker 2: of megaphones at me. And that Arch West story was

495
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:35,880
Speaker 2: one of the one of the big things that gave

496
00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:39,879
Speaker 2: me the courage to walk away from a career and

497
00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:43,680
Speaker 2: sell my home and move into the neighborhood. But before

498
00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 2: I could do that, You can't just move into Bonton.

499
00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:49,960
Speaker 2: I had to ask permission, and they laughed at me,

500
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:52,440
Speaker 2: you won't make it a week. Here was there a

501
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:56,679
Speaker 2: single white person living in Bonton. Okay, no, no, no,

502
00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:58,879
Speaker 2: there was a lady. There was a lady that was

503
00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:01,400
Speaker 2: living there that was part of this ministry that was there.

504
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:04,480
Speaker 2: There was a white lady that lived there. So one.

505
00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:07,360
Speaker 1: Who do you have to ask?

506
00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 2: Verssion of the men that the men that I knew,

507
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:15,359
Speaker 2: I mean, somebody had to say uch for couch for you?

508
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,240
Speaker 1: And they asked that that they think you were just

509
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:20,520
Speaker 1: out of your tree. Yeah.

510
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:22,919
Speaker 2: Well, the first thing was that you'll get kid, you

511
00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:26,359
Speaker 2: won't make it, so don't do that. And then we

512
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:29,359
Speaker 2: started talking. I was like, well, I started sharing with

513
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:31,000
Speaker 2: them what was on my heart and why I felt

514
00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:32,080
Speaker 2: like it was on my heart.

515
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:35,399
Speaker 1: They knew my testimony, and they knew your past.

516
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:40,000
Speaker 2: They knew my past, and and that just like I

517
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:43,280
Speaker 2: had been given grace and I had been believed in

518
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:47,560
Speaker 2: and mentored to rebuild my life, that if something's not

519
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:50,480
Speaker 2: here to catalyze that for them, how does anything change.

520
00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 2: So eventually I said, if you'll, if you'll move here,

521
00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:56,959
Speaker 2: we'll fight for you. We'll have your back. And they

522
00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:58,800
Speaker 2: gave me a list of things I couldn't couldn't do,

523
00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:01,560
Speaker 2: and said, if you as long as you onner this list,

524
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:02,520
Speaker 2: we will go. Oh.

525
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:03,920
Speaker 1: I got to hear some of those.

526
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:07,120
Speaker 2: Well, it was two places that I couldn't go. Why

527
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:10,440
Speaker 2: because they they're controlled by gangs and they can't protect

528
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:14,400
Speaker 2: me there. If I wind up there, they can't. It

529
00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:17,480
Speaker 2: would ten twenty people would die protecting me.

530
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:20,000
Speaker 1: I got it. So you can't go there. Go there.

531
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:25,120
Speaker 2: The second thing was don't approach anybody. We'll bring people

532
00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 2: to you and you and but let people come to you.

533
00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 2: Don't press put yourself on anybody, because again, if they

534
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:35,440
Speaker 2: can say he came to me and did this, then

535
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:39,440
Speaker 2: I can't. I can only go so far to protect you.

536
00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:40,000
Speaker 1: I get it.

537
00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:44,600
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm not gonna betray my community. So you

538
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:46,560
Speaker 2: can't do that and put us in a position where

539
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:48,200
Speaker 2: they can say you did this to them.

540
00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:52,840
Speaker 1: Just a whole set of different realities that most people

541
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 1: live in.

542
00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, very much.

543
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:58,239
Speaker 1: So so you move in, so I move in?

544
00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 2: Well I couldn't move in, so so I'm like, well,

545
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:03,880
Speaker 2: you know this. They gave me permissions, so this will

546
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:05,600
Speaker 2: be easy. I just need to find a place. There

547
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:08,320
Speaker 2: was no place to live. Everything, every single place in

548
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 2: our community was designated as low income. And even though

549
00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:14,680
Speaker 2: I had quit my job and had no income, I

550
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 2: still didn't qualify as low income. So it took a while. Eventually,

551
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:24,200
Speaker 2: a habitat house defaulted in our neighborhood. When somebody moves

552
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 2: out of their home, the dope fiends come in and

553
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 2: rip all the copper out of it, and then once

554
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:31,840
Speaker 2: the homes open, it becomes a trap house. And so

555
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:36,440
Speaker 2: this habitat house had been abandoned. The family couldn't make

556
00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:38,240
Speaker 2: it for one reason or another, moved out in the

557
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:40,640
Speaker 2: middle of the night. The people that are out all

558
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:43,320
Speaker 2: night saw the family move out, came in, took the

559
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:46,640
Speaker 2: copper out, and then they moved in, started selling dope

560
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 2: and prostitution out of it, and that became the place,

561
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:54,000
Speaker 2: the only place I could live because once somebody defaults

562
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:56,280
Speaker 2: on a habitat house, the rules fall off of it.

563
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,920
Speaker 2: So there was one place I could move in Bontan

564
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:08,320
Speaker 2: and that and it was into an active trap house. Yeah,

565
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:11,240
Speaker 2: with I'll show you pictures of that too, if you

566
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:13,280
Speaker 2: want to see them from what it looked like when

567
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:13,920
Speaker 2: we got there.

568
00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:18,200
Speaker 1: Okay, so you're here now, so I'm here, But now

569
00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:19,480
Speaker 1: what are you going to do? Well?

570
00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:22,600
Speaker 2: I don't know. To me, the only plan was to

571
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:24,880
Speaker 2: be present for those men that i'd fallen in love with.

572
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,440
Speaker 2: You know that you trusted me to allow me to

573
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:30,160
Speaker 2: come there, and we're willing to fight to protect me

574
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:32,280
Speaker 2: to be there, and so I want to get to

575
00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:35,800
Speaker 2: know them and to be present for them. That was all.

576
00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:39,400
Speaker 1: And so what you're talking about systems in the back

577
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:40,120
Speaker 1: of your mind.

578
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:43,240
Speaker 2: That though I didn't have a clue, the best gift

579
00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:45,600
Speaker 2: I had is I was ignorant, and I was worse

580
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,600
Speaker 2: than ignorant because everything that I thought from watching the

581
00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:51,640
Speaker 2: news and here in our society was wrong.

582
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, I learned that too, But my question is, why

583
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 1: then if you're not there to change systems? Because you

584
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 1: don't know that yet. Is it all about? You just

585
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:08,160
Speaker 1: feel like you were redeemed and now you want to

586
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:10,240
Speaker 1: try to provide redemption for others.

587
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 2: I want to be a facilitator, like the people that

588
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:17,239
Speaker 2: brought me to rehabit, the people that didn't give up

589
00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:19,320
Speaker 2: on me when I'd given up on myself, and everybody

590
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:21,920
Speaker 2: should have given up on me that didn't, those people

591
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:25,240
Speaker 2: that persevered when I was not worthy to be supported

592
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:27,640
Speaker 2: or walked with, or the reason I'm here today.

593
00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 1: And if somebody was willing to give that.

594
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:32,280
Speaker 2: To me, then I have a responsibility to give it

595
00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:33,160
Speaker 2: back to others.

596
00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:36,440
Speaker 1: That's literally how it started for you.

597
00:32:36,600 --> 00:32:39,760
Speaker 2: That's it had nothing else to give.

598
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:46,320
Speaker 1: So now you're in Bonton. Yeah, so that's a heck

599
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:48,600
Speaker 1: of a long way from Bonton Farms.

600
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:52,280
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well not that far. Well, I mean it's

601
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 2: not that big. The beautiful thing is this is not

602
00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:55,920
Speaker 2: that hard.

603
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:00,320
Speaker 1: Will be right that.

604
00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 2: The guys told me that if they didn't get a job,

605
00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:16,800
Speaker 2: they were going to die or go back to prison.

606
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:21,720
Speaker 2: So that gave us some starting point because they knew

607
00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:24,680
Speaker 2: what they needed, but they didn't know how to get there.

608
00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:29,440
Speaker 2: And so I thought that with my experience it, maybe

609
00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:31,440
Speaker 2: I had what it take to help them get there.

610
00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:34,200
Speaker 2: So I looked at him and said, well if I could.

611
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:36,720
Speaker 2: You know, Blackstone owned a portfolio of one hundred and

612
00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:41,240
Speaker 2: twenty plus company so surely, if surely I can find

613
00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:44,360
Speaker 2: somebody's willing to give you an opportunity, especially given that

614
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:48,360
Speaker 2: you're fighting to build a life for yourself. Like, they

615
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:50,320
Speaker 2: want this and they're willing to do what it takes

616
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:52,560
Speaker 2: to pursue it. So I asked him, I was like,

617
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 2: if I could get you an interview, what would you

618
00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 2: tell them you have to offer? Tell me your value.

619
00:34:00,800 --> 00:34:03,800
Speaker 2: Looked at me like I was speaking Mandarin about and

620
00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:06,560
Speaker 2: so all I told them is like, look, if you

621
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:09,600
Speaker 2: don't know your value, nobody's going to take the time

622
00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:13,720
Speaker 2: to figure it out for you. So I just said, look,

623
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:17,320
Speaker 2: our community is a disaster. Why don't we work together

624
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:20,720
Speaker 2: to clean it up. And in the process of cleaning

625
00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:23,359
Speaker 2: it up, we're going to I'm going to measure you

626
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:26,080
Speaker 2: every day on whether you can do eight or nine

627
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 2: things that take no education or experience to do. It's

628
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:30,799
Speaker 2: all heart. If you want to do it, you can

629
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:36,840
Speaker 2: show up on time, leave on time, be a good teammate,

630
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:40,960
Speaker 2: which means making the other people around you better. Be dependable,

631
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:44,640
Speaker 2: be responsible, have a positive attitude. These are things you

632
00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:49,280
Speaker 2: can choose to do. And at Blackstone, I've read every

633
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:52,400
Speaker 2: two years they come up with this IBM CEO study

634
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:56,120
Speaker 2: that's like sixty of the most prominent CEOs from around

635
00:34:56,200 --> 00:34:59,759
Speaker 2: the world that do this report, this Landscape report, and

636
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:02,120
Speaker 2: one that I had just read it was about this

637
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:06,200
Speaker 2: topic and it was saying that the generation entering the

638
00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:11,160
Speaker 2: workforce are coming in more educated than ever before, that

639
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:14,160
Speaker 2: they don't have the fundamentals right to be contributors because

640
00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:16,640
Speaker 2: these are the fundamentals that they're missing. They can't show

641
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:19,400
Speaker 2: up on time, they're not the responsible and dependable and

642
00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:23,200
Speaker 2: so that's where that came from. Interestingly enough, and so

643
00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:27,240
Speaker 2: we started that and immediately about half of the people

644
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,400
Speaker 2: that were working with us cleaning up the community were

645
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:31,839
Speaker 2: too sick to show up every day.

646
00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:36,840
Speaker 1: Like it's a big number. Fifty percent too sick.

647
00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:41,000
Speaker 2: Yeah. Diabetes, yeah, I mean I had one that was

648
00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:44,640
Speaker 2: legally blind from diabetes, had another one that had undiagnosed

649
00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:47,359
Speaker 2: high blood pressure that had now converted into a late

650
00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:50,360
Speaker 2: stage renal failure. So we had dialysis three times a week,

651
00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:53,560
Speaker 2: had one that three months after I moved there was

652
00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:55,880
Speaker 2: limping all the time. Didn't know why he had diabetes

653
00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,400
Speaker 2: and had that bottom left part of his leg amputated.

654
00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:02,560
Speaker 2: I had never heard of diallas before, and so I'm like,

655
00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:04,600
Speaker 2: why is everybody here so sick? And they're like, what

656
00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:07,640
Speaker 2: are you talking about? I was like, I'm forty seven

657
00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:10,640
Speaker 2: years old. This isn't normal, but they had never known

658
00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:14,040
Speaker 2: it because it's normal to them. I love this quote

659
00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:16,160
Speaker 2: when it comes to this work. It's silly, but I

660
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:18,920
Speaker 2: think it's profound. Says I don't know who discovered water,

661
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:25,400
Speaker 2: but I know it wasn't a fish, because it's all

662
00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:28,640
Speaker 2: I don't know how to describe something that's just always

663
00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:31,080
Speaker 2: been there. I don't know what to compare it to.

664
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:35,319
Speaker 2: And so that's why this relational equity comes in, where

665
00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:39,440
Speaker 2: when we come together as a people, there's things that

666
00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:42,840
Speaker 2: I cannot bring to the table that my community in

667
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:45,600
Speaker 2: bond Con can, and there's other things that they can't

668
00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:49,000
Speaker 2: bring to the table that when those things merge, that's

669
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:53,840
Speaker 2: when the kingdom comes. So you found out so health

670
00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:57,799
Speaker 2: was a problem, So we planted a garden. I didn't

671
00:36:57,800 --> 00:36:59,719
Speaker 2: know what else to do. It was a silly little

672
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:02,279
Speaker 2: thing we have right by my house. We have a

673
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:04,480
Speaker 2: liquor store and a beer and wine store right across

674
00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:07,720
Speaker 2: the street from each other. Unbeknownst to me, the liquor

675
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:09,640
Speaker 2: store was selling dope out of it. So a lady

676
00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:12,440
Speaker 2: gone into the liquor store, bought some dope, walked outside,

677
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:15,719
Speaker 2: shot up, walked across the street. Right by our garden.

678
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:18,120
Speaker 2: There's a bus stop bench, and she sat on that

679
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:21,040
Speaker 2: and started nodding off, which happens. You can go through

680
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:22,960
Speaker 2: my community right now and there's people nodding off on

681
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:26,480
Speaker 2: the benches. So nobody pays attention till somebody did, and

682
00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:27,960
Speaker 2: they went up to check on her, and sheet o'ed

683
00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:31,239
Speaker 2: eden died. So when they found out the dope came

684
00:37:31,239 --> 00:37:34,080
Speaker 2: from the liquor store, DA and FBI and the cops

685
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:37,040
Speaker 2: and code enforcement and everything come down. There's crime tape

686
00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:40,040
Speaker 2: around the building, and it just so happens to be.

687
00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:43,120
Speaker 2: That was the time when we finally got something besides

688
00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:45,000
Speaker 2: grass and weeds to grow in our garden. We had

689
00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:47,840
Speaker 2: our first harvest. So one of my guys was walking

690
00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:49,920
Speaker 2: in front of that bus stop bench just a few

691
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:53,080
Speaker 2: days later with a bag of vegetables and one of

692
00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:54,840
Speaker 2: the guys that's posted up out in front of that

693
00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:56,480
Speaker 2: corner store walks up to him says, well, you have

694
00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:59,600
Speaker 2: a new bag. He says, vegetables from our garden. He said,

695
00:37:59,680 --> 00:38:01,320
Speaker 2: let me see. So we opened up the bag and

696
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:03,359
Speaker 2: the guy said'll give you three dollars for it. So

697
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:05,600
Speaker 2: they made the deal, and a code enforcement officer walks

698
00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:07,239
Speaker 2: across the street and writes him a ticket for it.

699
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:11,600
Speaker 2: For what selling vegetables? Oh, for gosh sake are you.

700
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:14,120
Speaker 2: I can sit on my front porch and watch people

701
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:18,520
Speaker 2: being sold and nothing happens, and we get written a

702
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:23,800
Speaker 2: ticket for selling vegetables. So being I guess this passive

703
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:28,320
Speaker 2: aggressive thing still rages in me, we started calling ourselves

704
00:38:28,320 --> 00:38:30,799
Speaker 2: BoNT On Farms, just to poke the city.

705
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:36,279
Speaker 1: And I lamented, that's hilarious.

706
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:40,000
Speaker 2: Lamant it because people think we're about a farm or not.

707
00:38:40,800 --> 00:38:42,640
Speaker 2: I mean, if you think of the word farm, what

708
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:46,120
Speaker 2: it literally means is to cultivate, is to grow and cultivate,

709
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:48,440
Speaker 2: And it's just that we grow and cultivate people.

710
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:50,960
Speaker 1: The metaphor is not lost on me, but it is.

711
00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:54,359
Speaker 1: I'm glad you said it because people need to understand it.

712
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:56,759
Speaker 2: So it started with a garden. So it started with

713
00:38:57,160 --> 00:39:01,319
Speaker 2: a little workforce program that which through the lens of

714
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:04,720
Speaker 2: a garden. Yeah, well we were cleaning up our community. Okay,

715
00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:07,200
Speaker 2: the guys just said we need to work, and so

716
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:09,640
Speaker 2: we've got to create a mechanism for them to get

717
00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:13,600
Speaker 2: the kind of confidence of and to understand what employers value,

718
00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:16,239
Speaker 2: because employers don't pay you to show up. They pay

719
00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:19,759
Speaker 2: you for what you contribute value creation. But they will

720
00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:22,759
Speaker 2: fire you for not showing up. Yeah, because you're not

721
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,279
Speaker 2: creating value. That's a good it's point all with that value.

722
00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:28,520
Speaker 1: But the point is those basic tenets and fundamentals of

723
00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:30,640
Speaker 1: what you have to do to be a good employee.

724
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:34,720
Speaker 1: Through the lens of cleaning up and starting this garden

725
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:39,000
Speaker 1: and all these things, you were actually instituting those fundamentals

726
00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:42,439
Speaker 1: into their ethos. Yep, right, yep, absolutely right.

727
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:46,239
Speaker 2: And then I start being awakened to the systems thing

728
00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:49,080
Speaker 2: because the next thing, you know, if you're too sick

729
00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:52,399
Speaker 2: to work, guess what you can't work? So those health

730
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:56,640
Speaker 2: outcomes outlined earlier, it's a plague in our community. It's

731
00:39:56,680 --> 00:39:59,960
Speaker 2: not an anomaly. So if half my community is sick

732
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:03,400
Speaker 2: and dying, how can we ever be productive? You have

733
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:06,759
Speaker 2: to address health. So all of a sudden, it's not

734
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:10,000
Speaker 2: just one thing, it's a couple of things. Then we're

735
00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:14,360
Speaker 2: successful getting our first guy job. The guy looks like

736
00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:19,440
Speaker 2: Ray Lewis, like he is a He's a scary physical specimen,

737
00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:22,480
Speaker 2: but is the sweet His personality is the opposite of

738
00:40:22,520 --> 00:40:26,360
Speaker 2: his stature. It's the sweetest man you'll ever meet. And

739
00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:29,400
Speaker 2: he shows up at my door and he is crying

740
00:40:29,480 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 2: like a child cries where your whole body shakes. He's

741
00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:34,359
Speaker 2: having a panic attack. And I'm like, what's going on.

742
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:36,080
Speaker 2: He's like, I'm afraid I'm gonna lose my job. If

743
00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:37,759
Speaker 2: I lose my job, I'm going back to prison. I

744
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:40,200
Speaker 2: can't go back to prison. Like I can't go back

745
00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:44,080
Speaker 2: to prison. He's just like, on a scale of one

746
00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:46,319
Speaker 2: to ten, he's at a ten. And I was like,

747
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:48,200
Speaker 2: come in the house. He comes in and I was like,

748
00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:50,440
Speaker 2: what's going on. He's like, they're trying to reap on

749
00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:52,960
Speaker 2: my car. So you don't have a car. I drove

750
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:54,480
Speaker 2: you to your interview a week and a half ago.

751
00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:56,360
Speaker 2: He's like, well, on the application, they asked me if

752
00:40:56,400 --> 00:40:58,080
Speaker 2: I had transportation to get here. I didn't think they

753
00:40:58,120 --> 00:40:59,640
Speaker 2: were going to hire me. But when they did, I

754
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:02,200
Speaker 2: couldn't be a liar. I had had to get a car.

755
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:05,839
Speaker 2: But that's that ain't been. It's just been a little

756
00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:07,440
Speaker 2: over a week ago. I don't understand. He's like, Oh,

757
00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:09,480
Speaker 2: I make weekly payments, but I get my paycheck for

758
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:12,520
Speaker 2: two weeks. I've never heard of weekly car payments. Bring

759
00:41:12,560 --> 00:41:14,960
Speaker 2: to your paperwork. So he brought me his paperwork.

760
00:41:15,080 --> 00:41:15,759
Speaker 1: What was the.

761
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:18,719
Speaker 2: He paid eighty four hundred dollars for a car that

762
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:21,520
Speaker 2: had a thirty five hundred dollars blue book value, was

763
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:23,920
Speaker 2: being charged thirty percent interest on top of that, and

764
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:25,320
Speaker 2: had weekly payments.

765
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:29,839
Speaker 1: Oh my god. So the next thing is you I've

766
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:32,720
Speaker 1: asked this question for about eight years another system.

767
00:41:32,880 --> 00:41:35,440
Speaker 2: Could you be and do what you've been and done

768
00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:37,560
Speaker 2: if you never had access to credit?

769
00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:38,839
Speaker 1: Say it one more time?

770
00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:41,560
Speaker 2: Could you be and do what you've been and done

771
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:43,720
Speaker 2: if you never had access to credit?

772
00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:50,279
Speaker 1: Could? I'm answering the question could I be and do

773
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:52,600
Speaker 1: what I have been? There?

774
00:41:52,719 --> 00:41:55,800
Speaker 2: You are and done what you've done without access to credit.

775
00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:58,800
Speaker 2: I've asked that, Oh, but it's access to fair credit.

776
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:02,319
Speaker 2: But that's my way of saying it. Well, but you

777
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:06,960
Speaker 2: understand what I'm saying absolutely no. I've asked that for

778
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:10,879
Speaker 2: eight years to maybe ten thousand people now and I've

779
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:13,640
Speaker 2: not had one person say yes. So when that happens,

780
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:17,480
Speaker 2: what you're saying is that one barrier alone suffocates your potential.

781
00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:21,200
Speaker 1: Just that. Wow, we never talk about fair credit.

782
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:22,239
Speaker 2: I mean, I.

783
00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:26,200
Speaker 1: Certainly, I guess I'm cognizant of that, but I don't

784
00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:30,000
Speaker 1: know that I've thought about it in that stark of reality.

785
00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:33,920
Speaker 1: But it's so true. If you have no access to credit,

786
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:37,360
Speaker 1: how do you start? That's the whole purpose and credit

787
00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:38,160
Speaker 1: in the first place.

788
00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:41,960
Speaker 2: Well, it's just the nature of the of the society

789
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:44,319
Speaker 2: we live in that credit is a really access to

790
00:42:44,360 --> 00:42:47,040
Speaker 2: fair credit is a really important part of building a life.

791
00:42:47,640 --> 00:42:49,799
Speaker 2: In fact, I argue you can't do it. When I

792
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:53,000
Speaker 2: got my first job out of college, I had to

793
00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:55,560
Speaker 2: rent a U haul. Well I'm old enough that they

794
00:42:55,560 --> 00:42:57,680
Speaker 2: didn't give out credit cards to kids that didn't have

795
00:42:57,719 --> 00:43:02,280
Speaker 2: credit yet, thank god, as I would I would probably

796
00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:05,759
Speaker 2: be in debt jail still if they did so. And

797
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:07,720
Speaker 2: then I had to put a deposit down in an apartment

798
00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:10,440
Speaker 2: and I'd pay first and last month to posit up

799
00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:13,680
Speaker 2: to get utilities because I had no record, your first

800
00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:16,560
Speaker 2: I had orrow five thousand dollars to accept my first job.

801
00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:19,640
Speaker 1: Your first business. I'm sure you didn't go bosh Lawski's

802
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:25,200
Speaker 1: for cash. You're probably barring the money on the land, appreciating.

803
00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:29,400
Speaker 2: Its fifteen as I started a roofing company, so you

804
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:31,800
Speaker 2: know you have to Before that, I had a lawnmar

805
00:43:31,880 --> 00:43:34,440
Speaker 2: then on around, I had credit to do everything I've

806
00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:36,239
Speaker 2: ever done. Even if it was one hundred dollars for

807
00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:39,000
Speaker 2: my dad to go buy and refurbish lawnmow. Still credit.

808
00:43:39,080 --> 00:43:42,320
Speaker 2: It's still credit. And that's real in my world because

809
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:43,960
Speaker 2: when I have people come out to go to work

810
00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:46,600
Speaker 2: and their batteries dead and I don't have eighty five dollars,

811
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:49,640
Speaker 2: I have to. If I have the title to my car,

812
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:51,640
Speaker 2: I take it. If I don't have a title in

813
00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:53,880
Speaker 2: my car, I go get a payday loan advance. And

814
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:55,520
Speaker 2: if I don't have that, I have to go inside

815
00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:57,360
Speaker 2: and take my TV off the wall and go to

816
00:43:57,400 --> 00:43:59,120
Speaker 2: the pawn shop to get one hundred dollars to buy

817
00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:00,880
Speaker 2: a battery so I can get to work. And then

818
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:02,600
Speaker 2: by the time I've done that, I get to work

819
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:06,359
Speaker 2: and they say sorry, turn around and go home. You're

820
00:44:06,480 --> 00:44:12,120
Speaker 2: two hours late. You're for eighty five bucks. I started

821
00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:14,799
Speaker 2: micro lending out of our community. When this happens just

822
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:18,600
Speaker 2: out of my home. Our average loan is forty seven dollars.

823
00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:22,719
Speaker 2: And it's the difference between being evicted, our utilities being

824
00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:27,280
Speaker 2: shut off, losing job because I came out my tire slat.

825
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:31,000
Speaker 2: It's I have a lady that what's your default right?

826
00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:34,440
Speaker 2: A seven percent? We have a ninety three percent payback rate.

827
00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:41,200
Speaker 2: But it didn't start that way in an area where

828
00:44:41,239 --> 00:44:45,680
Speaker 2: you would expect that to be forty percent. No, this

829
00:44:45,719 --> 00:44:46,319
Speaker 2: is one I said.

830
00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:47,360
Speaker 1: It didn't start that way.

831
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:49,840
Speaker 2: No, it didn't start that way. Because people are so

832
00:44:50,040 --> 00:44:52,919
Speaker 2: grateful that you intervene on their behalf that they over

833
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:56,400
Speaker 2: promised their repayment. They feel bad that they had to

834
00:44:56,440 --> 00:44:59,120
Speaker 2: ask you. They still grow so grateful that you were

835
00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:01,480
Speaker 2: willing to build that bridge to help them, that I

836
00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:05,239
Speaker 2: over promise my payback and I'll pay you back next

837
00:45:05,239 --> 00:45:08,160
Speaker 2: pay period, and they just can't. I can't. So once

838
00:45:08,200 --> 00:45:10,359
Speaker 2: we started saying, look, I don't care if you even

839
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:12,799
Speaker 2: pay me back. What I care about is you build

840
00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:16,120
Speaker 2: a bridge through your trust and your word. So if

841
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:17,880
Speaker 2: you can't pay me back for a year, tell me,

842
00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:20,520
Speaker 2: you can't pay me back for a year because by

843
00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:23,319
Speaker 2: honoring your word, you're building a bridge that next time

844
00:45:23,320 --> 00:45:25,080
Speaker 2: you need help, I can help you again because you've

845
00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:29,000
Speaker 2: established yourself as trustworthy. So don't I don't care about them.

846
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:31,319
Speaker 2: It's not about the money, it's about the car, the

847
00:45:31,400 --> 00:45:34,120
Speaker 2: thing you talk about. It's about building character to be

848
00:45:34,200 --> 00:45:35,680
Speaker 2: who you say you are and do what you say

849
00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:38,760
Speaker 2: you are, because that's how social fabric builds, and trust

850
00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:44,920
Speaker 2: and healthy relationships established. That's not normal in my neighborhood.

851
00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:52,480
Speaker 1: So from this, Bontom Farms, which is that point is

852
00:45:52,560 --> 00:45:54,600
Speaker 1: nothing more than a garden next to the house in

853
00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:56,360
Speaker 1: front of the truck stop, across the street from the

854
00:45:56,400 --> 00:46:02,239
Speaker 1: lick store, which is mean. Mindside picturing you sit on

855
00:46:02,280 --> 00:46:04,600
Speaker 1: the front porch of that and this neighborhood is a

856
00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:09,000
Speaker 1: little bit hilarious. It's also really heartwarming some of what

857
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:11,279
Speaker 1: Bonton's Farms is today.

858
00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:16,360
Speaker 2: Bonton Farms works to create the conditions for flourishing. We

859
00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:18,440
Speaker 2: believe that people are made in the image of God

860
00:46:18,680 --> 00:46:21,920
Speaker 2: and that if the conditions for flourishing exist for people

861
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:24,719
Speaker 2: to do so, that they would. It is not a

862
00:46:24,719 --> 00:46:29,279
Speaker 2: people problem, it's a system problem, and so those outcomes

863
00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:31,319
Speaker 2: that I told you. There's another quote that I love

864
00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:33,880
Speaker 2: that says, if you show me the outcome, the journey

865
00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:37,520
Speaker 2: will reveal itself. The system will reveal itself. So when

866
00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:39,840
Speaker 2: I moved to Bonton and my neighbors showed me the

867
00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:44,239
Speaker 2: journey or showed me the outcome, the systems revealed themselves.

868
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:46,759
Speaker 2: That to me is the best news you can hear,

869
00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:50,040
Speaker 2: because it would be exponentially harder if people were the problem.

870
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:54,080
Speaker 2: It's one life at a time. It's a grind. Not

871
00:46:54,160 --> 00:46:57,040
Speaker 2: everybody's the same, so it's a it's not a science,

872
00:46:57,040 --> 00:46:59,400
Speaker 2: it's an art. So how do you figure all that out?

873
00:47:00,040 --> 00:47:02,279
Speaker 2: But if it's not a people problem and it's a

874
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:06,360
Speaker 2: system problem, we can simply rebuild a system and people

875
00:47:06,600 --> 00:47:09,239
Speaker 2: leverage that system, just like we did. Why is it

876
00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:14,560
Speaker 2: that in Amerollo, Texas, blue collar, middle class city at best,

877
00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:17,520
Speaker 2: we graduate ninety eight percent of our kids from high

878
00:47:17,560 --> 00:47:22,000
Speaker 2: school every year for generations? Because why is it that

879
00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:24,879
Speaker 2: we don't have those negative health outcomes? Why is it

880
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:28,879
Speaker 2: that we don't have high teen birth rates from across generations?

881
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 2: There is a system and culture established there that's conducive

882
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:35,640
Speaker 2: for who God created you to be. For that potential

883
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:39,480
Speaker 2: to manifest. And that's the best news of this is

884
00:47:39,520 --> 00:47:43,040
Speaker 2: this can be done easily and by creating the conditions

885
00:47:43,040 --> 00:47:46,000
Speaker 2: for flourishing one neighborhood at a time. And what happens

886
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:49,240
Speaker 2: is that when the conditions for flourishing happen over time,

887
00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:52,640
Speaker 2: those outcomes normalize. Who wouldn't want that?

888
00:47:53,840 --> 00:48:01,719
Speaker 1: So bon Time Forms is creating a change in systems

889
00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:02,680
Speaker 1: for US residents.

890
00:48:02,760 --> 00:48:05,719
Speaker 2: We think there's a framework that anybody could use anywhere.

891
00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:09,120
Speaker 2: We don't prescribe anything like this is not a model.

892
00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:11,400
Speaker 2: A model would say this is what you do. A

893
00:48:11,480 --> 00:48:17,279
Speaker 2: framework suggests you consider categories of work. But we have generations,

894
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:21,040
Speaker 2: as you learned during your time coaching at Manassas, there's

895
00:48:21,160 --> 00:48:24,440
Speaker 2: generations of kids that are bringing generations of trauma and

896
00:48:24,440 --> 00:48:27,239
Speaker 2: brokenness forward. We have to reach back and love on

897
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:32,560
Speaker 2: those people, walk with those people. So people, development and

898
00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:36,160
Speaker 2: love and caring for one another, mentoring and discipleship have

899
00:48:36,320 --> 00:48:38,799
Speaker 2: to be a part of it. It's the hardest part

900
00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:42,360
Speaker 2: of it because it can't be formulated. It's a life

901
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:44,879
Speaker 2: at a time. It's an art, not a science. God

902
00:48:44,920 --> 00:48:46,920
Speaker 2: doesn't treat me the same way as he treats you.

903
00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:49,680
Speaker 2: And even issue to issue in my life. Sometimes I

904
00:48:49,719 --> 00:48:53,000
Speaker 2: have horrible consequences for stuff, and sometimes he loves me

905
00:48:53,040 --> 00:48:58,160
Speaker 2: through things, and so there's this art that goes to that.

906
00:48:58,719 --> 00:49:01,880
Speaker 2: The second part of the word is the conditions for flourishing.

907
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:05,240
Speaker 2: We call them human essentials because I like for people

908
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:07,719
Speaker 2: to know this isn't something special you're creating for some

909
00:49:07,800 --> 00:49:11,400
Speaker 2: poor people. These are things that we all enjoy and

910
00:49:11,440 --> 00:49:13,600
Speaker 2: we're just applying it to places that have never had

911
00:49:13,640 --> 00:49:14,120
Speaker 2: it before.

912
00:49:14,480 --> 00:49:15,240
Speaker 1: So the term.

913
00:49:15,120 --> 00:49:18,200
Speaker 2: Human essentials, Oh, it makes me think that I'm no

914
00:49:18,239 --> 00:49:19,279
Speaker 2: different than anybody else.

915
00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:21,000
Speaker 1: You're not doing thing special for us.

916
00:49:21,040 --> 00:49:23,480
Speaker 2: You're just doing the same things for us that everybody

917
00:49:23,520 --> 00:49:28,279
Speaker 2: else is enjoyed. So we think that those seven things.

918
00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:32,319
Speaker 2: If you think about growing food, there's three things that

919
00:49:32,400 --> 00:49:35,239
Speaker 2: you need and three ingredients you need. You need sun

920
00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:39,040
Speaker 2: soil and water, you need nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and

921
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:42,000
Speaker 2: there's a whole bunch of micro ingredients that will make

922
00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:45,000
Speaker 2: it better. But if I don't have those six, you

923
00:49:45,040 --> 00:49:49,279
Speaker 2: won't get fruit. You can have five, you won't get

924
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:53,239
Speaker 2: fruit any combination of them. If I took it the

925
00:49:53,239 --> 00:49:56,200
Speaker 2: front of your building and put where there's light, and

926
00:49:56,239 --> 00:49:59,239
Speaker 2: got a cotton ball, and I wet it down and

927
00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:01,280
Speaker 2: put a carrotsy in there and put it in the window,

928
00:50:01,640 --> 00:50:04,520
Speaker 2: and it has water and it has sun When can

929
00:50:04,560 --> 00:50:07,040
Speaker 2: I come back and get a care I don't know.

930
00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:11,719
Speaker 2: Never it's missing soil. You can't if I put it

931
00:50:11,760 --> 00:50:14,520
Speaker 2: in soil and gave it water and put a piece

932
00:50:14,520 --> 00:50:16,359
Speaker 2: of tin over it, so it never got sunlight. When

933
00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:18,280
Speaker 2: when I come back and get a care, never didn't

934
00:50:18,280 --> 00:50:20,240
Speaker 2: get So so why is it that we go about

935
00:50:20,280 --> 00:50:24,040
Speaker 2: this social work doing what if they just got a job,

936
00:50:24,600 --> 00:50:26,560
Speaker 2: If we could just get the third grade weding level,

937
00:50:26,800 --> 00:50:27,640
Speaker 2: if we could just do.

938
00:50:28,120 --> 00:50:30,799
Speaker 1: Because they don't have all six things, one an of

939
00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:34,920
Speaker 1: itself as it will not work. Not as a brilliant metaphor.

940
00:50:35,160 --> 00:50:37,319
Speaker 2: You know, in Psalms, there's a scripture it says the

941
00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:40,680
Speaker 2: heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies proclaim

942
00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:43,320
Speaker 2: his name, and day after day they pour forth speech

943
00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:48,839
Speaker 2: like the creation shows us. Right, if you just look

944
00:50:48,880 --> 00:50:51,319
Speaker 2: at creation and how it works, it's a model for

945
00:50:51,400 --> 00:50:55,920
Speaker 2: how we work. They're not separate things. He created the

946
00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:59,880
Speaker 2: natural environment around us to show how things work. The fall,

947
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:04,759
Speaker 2: the leaves fall down, and they die, and then they

948
00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:07,919
Speaker 2: decompose and they convert into nutrients and then it gives

949
00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:11,600
Speaker 2: life to something new. It's all all through creation. He's

950
00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:15,040
Speaker 2: showing us how to do this work, and we're just

951
00:51:15,160 --> 00:51:17,080
Speaker 2: masters of hitting the bulls out of the wrong target.

952
00:51:22,719 --> 00:51:34,960
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. How long have you lived in

953
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:39,640
Speaker 1: Bonnat twelve years? What are the changes you've seen? We?

954
00:51:40,360 --> 00:51:43,000
Speaker 2: I mean some silly little things. We can get food

955
00:51:43,080 --> 00:51:46,680
Speaker 2: delivered to us now. Internet providers will come in and

956
00:51:46,680 --> 00:51:49,080
Speaker 2: install internet. When I moved in and called to get

957
00:51:49,080 --> 00:51:51,919
Speaker 2: my utilities on an internet service, the internet service said,

958
00:51:51,920 --> 00:51:53,120
Speaker 2: we don't service your area.

959
00:51:53,200 --> 00:51:57,439
Speaker 1: Are there places you still can't go? One? Just one?

960
00:51:57,520 --> 00:52:00,200
Speaker 2: It's not in our neighborhoods. Why, it's just out side

961
00:52:00,200 --> 00:52:02,960
Speaker 2: of our neighborhood. And it's just a it's controlled by gangs.

962
00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:06,760
Speaker 2: It's called Little World, but we know it is murder World.

963
00:52:06,880 --> 00:52:11,879
Speaker 2: It's just it's a. But the rest of that footprint

964
00:52:11,920 --> 00:52:15,160
Speaker 2: as no. Yeah, and you don't have to have permission

965
00:52:15,160 --> 00:52:16,000
Speaker 2: to come into Bonton.

966
00:52:16,080 --> 00:52:18,239
Speaker 1: Now do the police come now?

967
00:52:18,760 --> 00:52:18,960
Speaker 2: Yeah?

968
00:52:19,080 --> 00:52:24,520
Speaker 1: Sometimes are the police? How's that dynamic?

969
00:52:25,160 --> 00:52:29,080
Speaker 2: Very well? We have an amazing police chief, Eddie Garcia,

970
00:52:29,239 --> 00:52:34,640
Speaker 2: that believes that opportunity, the lack of opportunity, is birth's crime,

971
00:52:35,360 --> 00:52:37,760
Speaker 2: and that you can't police your way out of the problem.

972
00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:40,840
Speaker 2: And so he loves the work that we do, supports

973
00:52:40,840 --> 00:52:44,240
Speaker 2: the work we do. In fact, Amen about every quarter

974
00:52:44,680 --> 00:52:48,040
Speaker 2: they get everybody that is a violent offender in our

975
00:52:48,080 --> 00:52:51,120
Speaker 2: city that's not locked up, and they invite them out

976
00:52:51,160 --> 00:52:54,960
Speaker 2: to have pizza and they and they have the FBI there,

977
00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:58,160
Speaker 2: they have all they have. The DA comes, the mayor comes,

978
00:52:58,200 --> 00:53:01,080
Speaker 2: police chiefs there, the sheriffs are there, and they say,

979
00:53:01,120 --> 00:53:04,360
Speaker 2: we have zero tolerance in this city for violence. But

980
00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:06,719
Speaker 2: we don't believe you're a bad person or that you're

981
00:53:06,760 --> 00:53:09,560
Speaker 2: a violent person. We believe that it stems from lack

982
00:53:09,600 --> 00:53:13,759
Speaker 2: of opportunity. And so there's people here that whatever opportunity

983
00:53:13,800 --> 00:53:17,439
Speaker 2: or resources you need, you can get. And so I

984
00:53:17,520 --> 00:53:19,960
Speaker 2: know that I can sleep at night because I'm connecting

985
00:53:19,960 --> 00:53:23,000
Speaker 2: you with the people that have what you need. And

986
00:53:23,239 --> 00:53:26,040
Speaker 2: if you don't take that help and you commit a

987
00:53:26,120 --> 00:53:29,560
Speaker 2: violent act, everybody in here is coming after you. It's

988
00:53:29,560 --> 00:53:32,480
Speaker 2: your choice, but everybody in here will support You're not

989
00:53:32,600 --> 00:53:37,719
Speaker 2: a bad person. We know that the actions follow desperation

990
00:53:38,200 --> 00:53:41,080
Speaker 2: and lack of opportunity and a feeling be nice lated alone.

991
00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:43,080
Speaker 2: So here are the people that will help you. And

992
00:53:43,120 --> 00:53:45,520
Speaker 2: if they can't. Let me know who can, and we'll

993
00:53:45,520 --> 00:53:48,640
Speaker 2: connect you to those resources because we believe in you.

994
00:53:49,400 --> 00:53:52,520
Speaker 2: But if you don't take this opportunity and you choose

995
00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:55,279
Speaker 2: to do violent acts, we will come after you. Well

996
00:53:55,360 --> 00:53:58,440
Speaker 2: gotta believe people sitting in that very room are from

997
00:53:58,480 --> 00:53:59,560
Speaker 2: BONTI A.

998
00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:00,000
Speaker 1: Lot of them.

999
00:54:00,200 --> 00:54:04,040
Speaker 2: Well they're from the There's forty Bontons around in South Dallas.

1000
00:54:04,040 --> 00:54:06,640
Speaker 2: We're a tail of two cities. So that if you

1001
00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:10,799
Speaker 2: go across downtown Dallas where I thirty cuts across it,

1002
00:54:10,960 --> 00:54:14,319
Speaker 2: south of I thirty is North is beautiful, and all

1003
00:54:14,360 --> 00:54:17,800
Speaker 2: that North is what you see on TV, and South

1004
00:54:17,880 --> 00:54:19,000
Speaker 2: is what they don't show on TV.

1005
00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:24,560
Speaker 1: Beyond the farm and the jobs and really the job

1006
00:54:24,640 --> 00:54:31,880
Speaker 1: training getting people really hirable. What are some other stuff?

1007
00:54:32,120 --> 00:54:34,400
Speaker 1: I know you've done some stuff with banking, and we

1008
00:54:34,480 --> 00:54:38,279
Speaker 1: talked about predatory lending, but housing, what else?

1009
00:54:38,520 --> 00:54:40,799
Speaker 2: Everywhere I go across the country, it's the same things.

1010
00:54:40,960 --> 00:54:42,840
Speaker 2: And it might not be all seven, but it's some

1011
00:54:42,960 --> 00:54:46,880
Speaker 2: combination of this is that we have lack of economic development,

1012
00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:51,160
Speaker 2: and so we have to create jobs, not just prepare

1013
00:54:51,200 --> 00:54:53,720
Speaker 2: people and place them in jobs. They say the average

1014
00:54:53,760 --> 00:54:56,520
Speaker 2: dollar stays in the inner city six minutes compared to

1015
00:54:57,320 --> 00:54:59,279
Speaker 2: middle class community six days.

1016
00:54:59,760 --> 00:55:02,759
Speaker 1: So say that again. That's another one ideas in.

1017
00:55:02,719 --> 00:55:05,640
Speaker 2: The inner city six minutes. Because if all the effort

1018
00:55:05,760 --> 00:55:08,560
Speaker 2: is workforce development to get me a job somewhere else

1019
00:55:08,640 --> 00:55:11,160
Speaker 2: in an economic center, and I go there and earn

1020
00:55:11,239 --> 00:55:13,080
Speaker 2: my paycheck, and I come back home and there's no

1021
00:55:13,160 --> 00:55:15,319
Speaker 2: goods and services to spend that money on, I wind

1022
00:55:15,360 --> 00:55:18,360
Speaker 2: up giving it right back to you. So there's no

1023
00:55:18,520 --> 00:55:22,200
Speaker 2: flywheel of wealth building and economy building because so far

1024
00:55:22,440 --> 00:55:24,759
Speaker 2: most of our efforts have been job preparation and go

1025
00:55:24,800 --> 00:55:28,719
Speaker 2: work where there's already jobs. We have to create economics

1026
00:55:28,760 --> 00:55:31,480
Speaker 2: in our neighborhoods so that the dollars get exchanged. It

1027
00:55:31,520 --> 00:55:34,560
Speaker 2: creates this flywheel of prosperity in wealth building because our

1028
00:55:34,600 --> 00:55:37,600
Speaker 2: dollars start to be changed exchanged with one another. So

1029
00:55:37,760 --> 00:55:43,320
Speaker 2: economic development, health care, access to health care, access to fresh,

1030
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:46,560
Speaker 2: affordable food. We've launched a program in partnership with Kroger

1031
00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:52,040
Speaker 2: that called Grocery Connect. That is just extraor we can

1032
00:55:52,200 --> 00:55:54,960
Speaker 2: end food desert in the United States in five years.

1033
00:55:56,760 --> 00:56:01,719
Speaker 2: The plan is there to do that. Remedial banking. We

1034
00:56:02,120 --> 00:56:03,960
Speaker 2: have to have a way banks.

1035
00:56:03,680 --> 00:56:06,520
Speaker 1: Exist for people replacing your forty seven dollars loans.

1036
00:56:06,760 --> 00:56:10,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, because if somebody has to come to my house

1037
00:56:10,480 --> 00:56:12,160
Speaker 3: when I need to get to work and I came

1038
00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:14,439
Speaker 3: out and my batteries dead, and they have to hope

1039
00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:17,960
Speaker 3: that I'm home, it's just not dependent enough.

1040
00:56:17,960 --> 00:56:19,800
Speaker 2: We need the instant of financially insident.

1041
00:56:19,840 --> 00:56:22,600
Speaker 1: It's also not building a proper credit life or score

1042
00:56:23,080 --> 00:56:25,560
Speaker 1: that I get the micro Lenning taught me the lessons

1043
00:56:25,719 --> 00:56:27,960
Speaker 1: so that we could come up with an entrepreneurial solution

1044
00:56:28,360 --> 00:56:32,040
Speaker 1: to outcompete predatory lenders with this remedial bank model. Love

1045
00:56:32,080 --> 00:56:33,520
Speaker 1: it education.

1046
00:56:34,000 --> 00:56:37,520
Speaker 2: You know, still most of most of the country fund

1047
00:56:37,600 --> 00:56:40,719
Speaker 2: schools based on property taxes. So kid so kids that

1048
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:44,480
Speaker 2: live in areas where property taxes low don't have the

1049
00:56:44,520 --> 00:56:48,000
Speaker 2: same kind of fields, resources, equipment. You've unfortunately experienced a

1050
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:51,920
Speaker 2: lot of that. So we have to and education means

1051
00:56:52,040 --> 00:56:54,560
Speaker 2: a lot of different things. It's not just primary education.

1052
00:56:55,000 --> 00:56:57,759
Speaker 2: How do we build culture in the wisdom if our

1053
00:56:57,800 --> 00:57:02,319
Speaker 2: families have been decimated for generatations now, the wisdom that

1054
00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:04,840
Speaker 2: we are talking about being shared today, that's been so

1055
00:57:05,000 --> 00:57:08,480
Speaker 2: freely given to me, how do we start to instill

1056
00:57:08,520 --> 00:57:10,920
Speaker 2: that wisdom as a form of education in our community.

1057
00:57:11,040 --> 00:57:14,279
Speaker 2: You spend a lot of your time on character. The

1058
00:57:14,360 --> 00:57:17,160
Speaker 2: three things I picked up that you kept hammering those

1059
00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:20,000
Speaker 2: kids home on. What were the three character.

1060
00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:21,640
Speaker 1: Commitment?

1061
00:57:21,720 --> 00:57:28,160
Speaker 2: And yeah, yeah, so it's a form of education. Safe

1062
00:57:28,200 --> 00:57:31,640
Speaker 2: affordable housing is a really challenging thing and in Bonton

1063
00:57:31,840 --> 00:57:37,000
Speaker 2: we had worked with the city to bring some innovative products.

1064
00:57:37,040 --> 00:57:39,800
Speaker 2: Most zoning is all designed to build to be a

1065
00:57:40,240 --> 00:57:43,960
Speaker 2: to draw people to a city for economic benefit, and

1066
00:57:44,040 --> 00:57:46,800
Speaker 2: it's never really been thought of housing when it comes

1067
00:57:46,800 --> 00:57:51,040
Speaker 2: to people that fall out of that eighty percent framework rule.

1068
00:57:52,440 --> 00:57:56,320
Speaker 1: Every single thing you said is so consistent with one

1069
00:57:56,560 --> 00:58:05,000
Speaker 1: over arcing tennant. You're changing the system, that's the system.

1070
00:58:05,160 --> 00:58:10,320
Speaker 1: Every one of those is a systematic change hip. It's phenomenal. Yep,

1071
00:58:11,400 --> 00:58:15,320
Speaker 1: what's next? So I think you've experienced this. I don't

1072
00:58:15,320 --> 00:58:17,920
Speaker 1: want to put words in your mouth, but when you

1073
00:58:18,080 --> 00:58:21,840
Speaker 1: do something profound, something transformative, there's a part of the

1074
00:58:21,840 --> 00:58:24,720
Speaker 1: world that wants to make you a hero. And if

1075
00:58:24,720 --> 00:58:27,800
Speaker 1: this is a kingdom work, that's a really dangerous thing

1076
00:58:28,560 --> 00:58:31,320
Speaker 1: because then people think, well, it's because of Coach Bill

1077
00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:35,000
Speaker 1: or it's because of Darren Babcock. And if that happens,

1078
00:58:35,320 --> 00:58:37,640
Speaker 1: then people don't believe that it can be done anywhere

1079
00:58:37,680 --> 00:58:43,440
Speaker 1: and everywhere. That it takes some special person to do it,

1080
00:58:43,600 --> 00:58:47,800
Speaker 1: then we remain paralyzed and stuck. So because this is

1081
00:58:47,840 --> 00:58:50,480
Speaker 1: a kingdom work, and I believe that it's incredibly important

1082
00:58:50,520 --> 00:58:52,600
Speaker 1: and it can't just be in BoNT On. It has

1083
00:58:52,680 --> 00:58:55,880
Speaker 1: to spread. When COVID hit, we implemented a plan or

1084
00:58:56,160 --> 00:58:58,080
Speaker 1: the next three year strategic plan, and part of that

1085
00:58:58,200 --> 00:59:00,880
Speaker 1: was a succession plan. And I was going to have

1086
00:59:00,920 --> 00:59:03,800
Speaker 1: to walk away because it was becoming too much about

1087
00:59:03,800 --> 00:59:08,080
Speaker 1: me and too dependent on me, and that can't happen.

1088
00:59:08,600 --> 00:59:12,040
Speaker 1: I mean, that would kill Bonton might make it, but

1089
00:59:12,680 --> 00:59:14,560
Speaker 1: nobody else. It wouldn't help anybody else.

1090
00:59:15,280 --> 00:59:17,080
Speaker 2: So we did that, and I thought I was going

1091
00:59:17,120 --> 00:59:20,280
Speaker 2: to have to go back to business, which I lamented,

1092
00:59:20,320 --> 00:59:23,479
Speaker 2: but I was willing to do. And again providentially, it's

1093
00:59:23,520 --> 00:59:27,400
Speaker 2: just like every time I'm obedient, God orders my steps,

1094
00:59:27,960 --> 00:59:30,840
Speaker 2: and every time I'm not, I wind up in these

1095
00:59:30,880 --> 00:59:35,160
Speaker 2: really dark lost places. But stand Together Foundation called and said,

1096
00:59:35,200 --> 00:59:38,880
Speaker 2: I'd been telling them for eight years. It's not about

1097
00:59:38,920 --> 00:59:41,800
Speaker 2: the individual things that you're doing that are all beautiful,

1098
00:59:42,440 --> 00:59:44,280
Speaker 2: But if we don't build that help, if we don't

1099
00:59:44,320 --> 00:59:48,520
Speaker 2: build healthy foundations and fences by building systems of flourishing,

1100
00:59:49,000 --> 00:59:51,840
Speaker 2: then we can't put enough humpty dumpties back together again

1101
00:59:51,880 --> 00:59:56,000
Speaker 2: to win this battle. And they finally called and said, well,

1102
00:59:56,040 --> 00:59:57,880
Speaker 2: we think that's right, but we don't really know how

1103
00:59:57,880 --> 00:59:59,840
Speaker 2: to go about it. Would you consider coming and joining

1104
00:59:59,840 --> 01:00:02,400
Speaker 2: our team and building a place base work for us.

1105
01:00:03,800 --> 01:00:05,800
Speaker 2: So now I get to go everywhere, I meet amazing

1106
01:00:05,840 --> 01:00:09,720
Speaker 2: people like you guys, I get exposed to some things

1107
01:00:09,760 --> 01:00:12,080
Speaker 2: I've never seen before so I can add it in,

1108
01:00:12,640 --> 01:00:14,640
Speaker 2: and then I glso get to share what we've learned

1109
01:00:14,640 --> 01:00:17,040
Speaker 2: in Bonton with other people that haven't seen that before.

1110
01:00:17,480 --> 01:00:23,160
Speaker 2: And I believe that. I believe that the breakdown that

1111
01:00:23,200 --> 01:00:27,160
Speaker 2: we're experiencing in our society, if you just take our

1112
01:00:27,240 --> 01:00:31,000
Speaker 2: country is a country because of people, right, If you

1113
01:00:31,040 --> 01:00:33,000
Speaker 2: have no people, it's not a country, it's just a

1114
01:00:33,080 --> 01:00:37,600
Speaker 2: land mass. So our country is us. We put too

1115
01:00:37,720 --> 01:00:40,080
Speaker 2: much on government and all these other forces and use

1116
01:00:40,120 --> 01:00:42,400
Speaker 2: this as an excuse for why things are the way

1117
01:00:42,440 --> 01:00:45,400
Speaker 2: we are. We have the power by loving one another,

1118
01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:49,120
Speaker 2: that's it. You mean an army of normal folks, Yes,

1119
01:00:49,200 --> 01:00:52,680
Speaker 2: I mean an army of normal folks, and that we

1120
01:00:52,760 --> 01:00:56,720
Speaker 2: can leverage this into something where if you look at

1121
01:00:57,000 --> 01:01:00,360
Speaker 2: what are the most glaring things that you hear about

1122
01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:03,479
Speaker 2: across society that are social issues that we spend vast

1123
01:01:03,520 --> 01:01:07,720
Speaker 2: amounts of resources trying to solve. There's a bunch of poverty, heartlessness, addiction,

1124
01:01:08,800 --> 01:01:13,600
Speaker 2: human trafficking, criminal justice, criminal justice. Those are symptoms of

1125
01:01:13,640 --> 01:01:16,800
Speaker 2: a problem if you address symptoms and not the cause,

1126
01:01:18,600 --> 01:01:20,320
Speaker 2: which is what we've done for the last one hundred

1127
01:01:20,360 --> 01:01:23,520
Speaker 2: and fifty years. So what we're encouraging everybody to do

1128
01:01:23,680 --> 01:01:27,480
Speaker 2: is where is the breakdown happening, and the breakdowns happening

1129
01:01:27,480 --> 01:01:30,880
Speaker 2: and data it's irrefutal, comes from two places, and it

1130
01:01:30,920 --> 01:01:34,400
Speaker 2: affects our whole country. Areas of concentrated poverty and the

1131
01:01:34,400 --> 01:01:39,280
Speaker 2: breakdown of the family in stop. And we need a

1132
01:01:39,600 --> 01:01:44,440
Speaker 2: huge part of our philanthropic community, our faith community, and

1133
01:01:44,520 --> 01:01:48,560
Speaker 2: hopefully with the proper support of government to come together

1134
01:01:48,840 --> 01:01:51,520
Speaker 2: and to make investments to see that our families are

1135
01:01:51,520 --> 01:01:54,560
Speaker 2: held together in restored and that the areas of concentrated

1136
01:01:54,600 --> 01:01:59,440
Speaker 2: poverty have the conditions for flourishing because all of those

1137
01:01:59,760 --> 01:02:03,040
Speaker 2: down on stream symptomatic issues that I just described are

1138
01:02:03,120 --> 01:02:07,240
Speaker 2: being filled and populated. The pipeline to those is coming

1139
01:02:07,280 --> 01:02:09,080
Speaker 2: from those two places.

1140
01:02:09,680 --> 01:02:10,680
Speaker 1: Could not agree more.

1141
01:02:10,840 --> 01:02:15,160
Speaker 2: Now I'm somebody that didn't come from a broken family.

1142
01:02:15,360 --> 01:02:18,880
Speaker 2: So obviously that's not true. Now there's anomalies, but it's

1143
01:02:18,920 --> 01:02:22,600
Speaker 2: ten percent. If ninety percent coming from those two things,

1144
01:02:22,600 --> 01:02:24,400
Speaker 2: shouldn't we focus on that ninety percent.

1145
01:02:27,120 --> 01:02:31,640
Speaker 1: If somebody listen to me has a Bonton neum.

1146
01:02:32,000 --> 01:02:36,080
Speaker 2: They do right. Everybody listening does right. But if they

1147
01:02:36,080 --> 01:02:39,360
Speaker 2: have a bon time nerum and they have a heart

1148
01:02:39,480 --> 01:02:43,920
Speaker 2: and a desire to do the kind of work that

1149
01:02:44,560 --> 01:02:49,360
Speaker 2: you've done, how do they find Bonton or you?

1150
01:02:49,680 --> 01:02:53,320
Speaker 1: Or how does that happen? How does somebody want to

1151
01:02:53,480 --> 01:02:56,040
Speaker 1: or or maybe there's just somebody listen wants to support it.

1152
01:02:56,360 --> 01:02:59,280
Speaker 1: What how do they find it? Where do they go?

1153
01:02:59,760 --> 01:03:03,440
Speaker 2: Well, if you ask around, because I got the privilege

1154
01:03:03,440 --> 01:03:07,200
Speaker 2: of touring this beautiful city yesterday and every neighborhood we

1155
01:03:07,280 --> 01:03:09,880
Speaker 2: drove in there was some amazing people out there doing

1156
01:03:09,920 --> 01:03:13,480
Speaker 2: a fantastic, beautiful work, and so you just have to

1157
01:03:13,520 --> 01:03:17,240
Speaker 2: seek it out. I don't recommend people just driving in

1158
01:03:17,320 --> 01:03:21,440
Speaker 2: and saying, hey here I am. I think it's good

1159
01:03:21,160 --> 01:03:25,040
Speaker 2: to enter through someone that has some equity and relationship

1160
01:03:25,320 --> 01:03:28,080
Speaker 2: already established, and then it God may lead you into

1161
01:03:28,160 --> 01:03:28,760
Speaker 2: your own thing.

1162
01:03:29,440 --> 01:03:32,760
Speaker 1: But if they want to learn how you did it, yeah,

1163
01:03:32,760 --> 01:03:35,720
Speaker 1: I think if you google Bonton Farms, you'll read an

1164
01:03:35,760 --> 01:03:39,080
Speaker 1: abundance of stories that kind of talk about how we

1165
01:03:39,160 --> 01:03:41,800
Speaker 1: did it. Yeah, so googling Bonton you can hear the

1166
01:03:41,840 --> 01:03:49,200
Speaker 1: stories and all of that, which there's a Bonton literally

1167
01:03:49,360 --> 01:03:53,600
Speaker 1: every ten square miles in a municipality. Right, So I

1168
01:03:53,640 --> 01:03:56,680
Speaker 1: mean the founder of Bonton and now you're exit. But

1169
01:03:57,360 --> 01:03:58,840
Speaker 1: what a Stand Together.

1170
01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:03,160
Speaker 2: Stand Together found is a national foundation that for the

1171
01:04:03,240 --> 01:04:06,120
Speaker 2: last nine years has been immersed in the social sector

1172
01:04:07,680 --> 01:04:10,400
Speaker 2: because we look around the country and say, you know,

1173
01:04:10,440 --> 01:04:12,680
Speaker 2: there's a report that came out recently that said less

1174
01:04:12,720 --> 01:04:19,240
Speaker 2: than two percent of all nonprofits show evidence of real transformation. So,

1175
01:04:19,600 --> 01:04:22,840
Speaker 2: just to put it in context, today, there's over if

1176
01:04:22,840 --> 01:04:26,360
Speaker 2: you take churches and educational institutions out of it, there's

1177
01:04:26,400 --> 01:04:29,960
Speaker 2: a million and a half nonprofits that represent over ten

1178
01:04:30,000 --> 01:04:34,200
Speaker 2: percent of all jobs in the United States, five point

1179
01:04:34,240 --> 01:04:36,880
Speaker 2: seven percent of our GDP, And if you take government

1180
01:04:36,920 --> 01:04:39,520
Speaker 2: money out of it, consume five hundred billion dollars a year.

1181
01:04:40,400 --> 01:04:42,760
Speaker 2: And yet every problem we care about that we just

1182
01:04:42,880 --> 01:04:44,120
Speaker 2: highlighted is getting worse.

1183
01:04:45,080 --> 01:04:50,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like this this massive amount of resource of time, effort, talent,

1184
01:04:50,560 --> 01:04:54,000
Speaker 1: and money being employed. But it feels like it's a

1185
01:04:54,080 --> 01:04:58,720
Speaker 1: million different birds pecking at it. Yeah, rather than one

1186
01:05:00,800 --> 01:05:04,720
Speaker 1: could joined effort. And what if we could pull all

1187
01:05:04,760 --> 01:05:09,520
Speaker 1: of those resources together and instead of having you know,

1188
01:05:09,600 --> 01:05:12,280
Speaker 1: a lot of little pets as something, have a massive

1189
01:05:12,360 --> 01:05:16,240
Speaker 1: drill born a hole on the problem. So that's stand together.

1190
01:05:16,400 --> 01:05:18,480
Speaker 1: It's like first one us to stand together.

1191
01:05:18,680 --> 01:05:22,360
Speaker 2: We know that we know that the data reveals that

1192
01:05:22,360 --> 01:05:25,600
Speaker 2: we're where we need to desperately figure out a way

1193
01:05:25,640 --> 01:05:27,920
Speaker 2: to start winning on these issues that we care most about.

1194
01:05:27,920 --> 01:05:29,600
Speaker 2: And we know we're not and the status cause is

1195
01:05:29,600 --> 01:05:32,600
Speaker 2: not okay, we don't know what we don't know? So

1196
01:05:32,640 --> 01:05:34,560
Speaker 2: how do we how do we learn to be able

1197
01:05:34,560 --> 01:05:37,480
Speaker 2: to advise, counsel and come alongside and partner with people.

1198
01:05:37,840 --> 01:05:40,040
Speaker 2: We need to just go immerse ourselves in the market

1199
01:05:40,040 --> 01:05:41,640
Speaker 2: and do it. And so they've done that for over

1200
01:05:41,760 --> 01:05:43,720
Speaker 2: nine years now, and then.

1201
01:05:43,720 --> 01:05:46,840
Speaker 1: You are we with them with stand together? What do

1202
01:05:46,880 --> 01:05:47,280
Speaker 1: you do with that?

1203
01:05:48,040 --> 01:05:50,760
Speaker 2: I have the responsibility of building their place based work.

1204
01:05:51,360 --> 01:05:55,600
Speaker 2: So my title is Director of Community Transformation and the

1205
01:05:55,680 --> 01:05:58,520
Speaker 2: work that I've developed, the place based work we've developed,

1206
01:05:58,520 --> 01:06:03,080
Speaker 2: we call it Radius and we have the opportunity to

1207
01:06:03,080 --> 01:06:05,360
Speaker 2: go all across the country and to learn from other

1208
01:06:05,400 --> 01:06:08,720
Speaker 2: people and then we like to get invited into places

1209
01:06:08,760 --> 01:06:10,960
Speaker 2: to say, can we come alongside you with all of

1210
01:06:11,000 --> 01:06:13,400
Speaker 2: the ten years of experience and resources that we have

1211
01:06:13,800 --> 01:06:17,080
Speaker 2: and capabilities we've developed to help bring something really special

1212
01:06:17,120 --> 01:06:20,200
Speaker 2: to your city. But we won't come unless we're invited.

1213
01:06:20,240 --> 01:06:23,920
Speaker 2: So that's why it's like this past least travel. It

1214
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:26,240
Speaker 2: takes some time to earn that, take some time to

1215
01:06:26,240 --> 01:06:29,760
Speaker 2: build relationships, take some time to see if your vision

1216
01:06:29,800 --> 01:06:33,760
Speaker 2: for your city is aligns with what capabilities we have

1217
01:06:33,840 --> 01:06:37,480
Speaker 2: to bring to bear. We have patients, and so we've

1218
01:06:37,480 --> 01:06:40,360
Speaker 2: been invited here to kind of start a conversation about

1219
01:06:41,040 --> 01:06:43,120
Speaker 2: just learning about your city and where you guys hope

1220
01:06:43,160 --> 01:06:43,600
Speaker 2: to take it.

1221
01:06:46,840 --> 01:06:54,280
Speaker 1: Darren, When you look at the mirror this morning and

1222
01:06:55,480 --> 01:07:01,000
Speaker 1: you think that it wasn't that long ago that you

1223
01:07:01,080 --> 01:07:07,160
Speaker 1: are numbing your sadness and depression with cocaine and fights,

1224
01:07:08,720 --> 01:07:13,520
Speaker 1: and you are where you are now, what do you feel?

1225
01:07:17,160 --> 01:07:22,840
Speaker 2: Just gratitude. I feel an awful lot of grace because

1226
01:07:23,160 --> 01:07:26,200
Speaker 2: it's the only thing that allows me to know that

1227
01:07:26,240 --> 01:07:29,520
Speaker 2: I've been extended grace. And because I've been getting extended

1228
01:07:29,560 --> 01:07:31,800
Speaker 2: grace by my creator, I can give it to myself

1229
01:07:32,040 --> 01:07:36,000
Speaker 2: and learn to give it to others. I feel an

1230
01:07:36,040 --> 01:07:40,160
Speaker 2: abundance of mercy because I didn't suffer all the consequences

1231
01:07:40,200 --> 01:07:43,200
Speaker 2: that I should have. I've been spared from so much,

1232
01:07:44,160 --> 01:07:52,120
Speaker 2: and I think the last thing is just joy, you know. Gratitude, grace, mercy,

1233
01:07:52,160 --> 01:07:57,240
Speaker 2: and joy are the things that define my life more

1234
01:07:57,280 --> 01:07:58,320
Speaker 2: now than ever before.

1235
01:08:01,360 --> 01:08:07,120
Speaker 1: From a dude who grew up an Amillo and came

1236
01:08:07,200 --> 01:08:12,600
Speaker 1: up blue middle class Oklahoma wrestling and all of that

1237
01:08:12,880 --> 01:08:19,040
Speaker 1: built a business, Oh my gosh, with the six and

1238
01:08:19,120 --> 01:08:21,679
Speaker 1: seven year old son, loses his thirty year old wife,

1239
01:08:22,640 --> 01:08:29,639
Speaker 1: the wheels come off, and then he fights through, finds

1240
01:08:29,680 --> 01:08:34,360
Speaker 1: his faith, finds a relationship with God, gets back, starts

1241
01:08:34,439 --> 01:08:39,240
Speaker 1: killing the corporate environment, and walks away because he feels

1242
01:08:39,320 --> 01:08:43,439
Speaker 1: responsibility to give the same grace and mercy he received

1243
01:08:43,479 --> 01:08:46,839
Speaker 1: in his life at the depth of the dark, darkest

1244
01:08:46,880 --> 01:08:50,640
Speaker 1: deep this place and then moves into a place like Bontan,

1245
01:08:51,439 --> 01:08:54,880
Speaker 1: builds it up, turns it over, and is now going

1246
01:08:54,920 --> 01:08:58,639
Speaker 1: around the country with stand together trying to find ways

1247
01:08:58,720 --> 01:09:06,400
Speaker 1: to use that experience to help facilitate other growth. That's

1248
01:09:06,439 --> 01:09:13,040
Speaker 1: your story, yes, sir, I'm sticking to it. Wow, dude,

1249
01:09:13,920 --> 01:09:16,040
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sharing it with us. Thank

1250
01:09:16,080 --> 01:09:22,639
Speaker 1: you so much for the work you have put in

1251
01:09:22,680 --> 01:09:27,160
Speaker 1: to help other people, and Man, the wisdom you know.

1252
01:09:28,680 --> 01:09:32,760
Speaker 1: I just hope our listeners paid attention to the understanding

1253
01:09:32,880 --> 01:09:39,680
Speaker 1: that people are made in God's image and therefore they

1254
01:09:39,720 --> 01:09:44,040
Speaker 1: are good. Systems are made by human beings, and therefore

1255
01:09:44,040 --> 01:09:46,760
Speaker 1: they are failed. And if we will believe in the

1256
01:09:46,840 --> 01:09:49,880
Speaker 1: human beings and not believe in the systems, then we

1257
01:09:50,080 --> 01:09:54,519
Speaker 1: can change our culture. And I think that's what I

1258
01:09:54,600 --> 01:09:57,360
Speaker 1: get the most from you, and.

1259
01:09:57,360 --> 01:10:03,080
Speaker 2: That He's modeled creation works because he designed the system

1260
01:10:03,479 --> 01:10:05,640
Speaker 2: for creation to work. That's why the moon rises the

1261
01:10:05,640 --> 01:10:07,400
Speaker 2: way it does, and the sunsets the way it does,

1262
01:10:07,439 --> 01:10:10,120
Speaker 2: and the tides come in and go out, and the

1263
01:10:10,160 --> 01:10:13,719
Speaker 2: seasons come and go. He designed a system that shows

1264
01:10:13,840 --> 01:10:16,679
Speaker 2: us what it looks like to have a flourishing system,

1265
01:10:16,800 --> 01:10:20,599
Speaker 2: and all of creation enjoys it. And so it's not

1266
01:10:20,680 --> 01:10:22,080
Speaker 2: like we have to come up. We just need to

1267
01:10:22,120 --> 01:10:25,160
Speaker 2: be observing of what God's showing us already all around

1268
01:10:25,240 --> 01:10:27,600
Speaker 2: us every day, and then emulate it.

1269
01:10:28,240 --> 01:10:34,240
Speaker 1: Darren Babcott, the founder of been Bontan Farms and now

1270
01:10:34,280 --> 01:10:41,439
Speaker 1: is stand together and really the arbiter of some pretty

1271
01:10:41,439 --> 01:10:44,800
Speaker 1: exceptional wisdom. Thanks man for joining me here.

1272
01:10:45,000 --> 01:10:45,800
Speaker 2: Honored to meet you.

1273
01:10:46,240 --> 01:10:47,960
Speaker 1: It's an honor to meet you. Dude. You've done to

1274
01:10:48,000 --> 01:10:49,960
Speaker 1: act a lot more than I have, and I'm just

1275
01:10:50,120 --> 01:10:54,360
Speaker 1: I'm I've instead of being an interviewer today, I've felt

1276
01:10:54,400 --> 01:10:58,000
Speaker 1: more like a student than i've appreciate the lessons. Thank you, sir,

1277
01:10:58,360 --> 01:11:04,559
Speaker 1: Thank you, and thank you for joining us this week.

1278
01:11:05,240 --> 01:11:08,759
Speaker 1: If Darren Babcock or other guests have inspired you in general,

1279
01:11:08,880 --> 01:11:13,520
Speaker 1: or better yet, inspired you to take action by volunteering

1280
01:11:13,760 --> 01:11:17,599
Speaker 1: or donating to Bonton Farms, starting something like it in

1281
01:11:17,640 --> 01:11:21,840
Speaker 1: your community, or something else entirely, please let me know.

1282
01:11:22,520 --> 01:11:24,800
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear about it. You can write me

1283
01:11:24,960 --> 01:11:29,920
Speaker 1: anytime at Bill at normalfolks dot us, and I promise

1284
01:11:29,960 --> 01:11:34,479
Speaker 1: you guys, I'll respond. If you enjoyed this episode, please

1285
01:11:35,000 --> 01:11:39,080
Speaker 1: share it with friends that I'm social, subscribe to the podcast,

1286
01:11:39,240 --> 01:11:43,400
Speaker 1: rate and review it, Become a premium member at normalfolks

1287
01:11:43,400 --> 01:11:46,479
Speaker 1: dot us. All of these things that will help us

1288
01:11:46,520 --> 01:11:50,639
Speaker 1: grow an army of normal folks. Thanks to our producer,

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Speaker 1: Iron Light Labs. I'm Bill Courtney. I'll see you next week.