Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 483. When One Nudge Changes Everything: Meet Pink Ribbon Good - Heather Salazar

Transcript

483. When One Nudge Changes Everything: Meet Pink Ribbon Good - Heather Salazar · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm John.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: And I'm Becky.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: And this is the we Are For Good podcast.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: So welcome to the Good Community.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabbit fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: So let's get started.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Becky, are you so pumped right now?
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: You know I'm smiling.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: We're talking about women today.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: We're talking about women's health.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going to throw in some board and all kinds of other stuff in there, but at the core, we're talking about women.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: So I'm excited.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: We are, and we're talking about a topic that impacts all of this, and I mean I want to start with this humbling stat that's not going to surprise anybody, because of just the reality of cancer in our world today Every 90 seconds someone's diagnosed with breast cancer, and one in eight women born in the US today are going to develop breast cancer at some point during their lives.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: You know, we've had conversations about how cancer diagnosis in a family can completely change the trajectory of our life, and we've talked to someone like Nancy Brinker, who it did change how she poured into her work, and I feel like we've got another person in our midst today that is a Titan, just like that.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: We are talking to Heather Salazar.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: She's the CEO of Pink Ribbon Good and I mean she is really connecting the dots because, as we all know somebody affected by cancer, what do we really need?
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, we have the medical piece, but we also need the creature comforts, but just help with everyday tasks, and that's where Pink Ribbon Good really comes in.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: And so Heather's story I'm not going to spoil it today, friends, because I want her to take us through that.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: But their North Star is to make sure that no one travels this road alone.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: And what started in Ohio now has locations in St Louis and San Francisco Bay and under their Heather's leadership, she's going to go to take this national in the next few years.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: And we are just here to talk all things with Heather.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: It is a delight to have you in our house, my friend.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the we Are For Good podcast.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Oh, I'm so happy to be here and just listening to the podcast you've had before.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: It's just exciting to be even offered the opportunity.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Well, it's a huge honor to us, and so it's not going to be a surprise that we want to start getting to know Heather at the beginning of today's show.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: So I wonder if you would take us back, take us back to growing up in some of the formative experiences, and take us into your story too, that led to this founding.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Well, so if you asked to start when I, when I grew up, I was super passionate about inner city and so when I was 14 or 15, I was able to start a reading program for inner city kids and I loved those kids like they were my own.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: I would go into their neighborhoods and the goal was to keep them reading in the summer so they could be successful at school.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: So the running joke is when I talk at places I always say I thought I was going to self-generational poverty, like I really believed I could do it.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: And you know, breast cancer wasn't in my realm of things at all.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: I got married super young.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: I didn't plan on getting married until I was 30.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: I had these big dreams right.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: I was going to live in New York City.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: I worked at the Bowery when I was in intern and so ho, and I was like going to.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: I had so many things to do at 30 years old, directly on the dot.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I was going to get married and start having kids, like I knew it Like it was planned out this way Solid plan as type A.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: I can totally identify with this.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely Right.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: It is like I had things to do Hilarious.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: But right before I was living for college in the summer, I was still in high school.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: I was going dancing at a teen club where you were allowed to go if you were under 18.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: And I had to go eat tacos before I left because you couldn't afford the food actually in the club.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: You know You're so happy and so, totally so.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: My now husband was going through the drive-thru at Taco Bell and picked me up at Taco Bell.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, these are the stories.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: This is why you asked this question because we need to know this happens.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: So he went into the military.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: I chased him.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: We got married at 19.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: We've been married 30 years.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: How crazy.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: We ended up having a baby pretty young.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: I got married at 19 and we had our first one right before I was turned into, like at the end of my 21st year, and I was mad about it.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: At first I was like what?
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: I'm in school, 20 credit hours.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: How did this happen?
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: You know, whatever.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: And I just always wanted a lot of kids.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: And I say that because, as you find out later in my story, I have breast cancer at 31.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: So how crazy.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: You know how things work out.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: So we came home from the military.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: He got all of his schooling and training and we came home to raise our kids near my family and we'd been home a few years, had three small children and my mom's neighbor is a midwife who had delivered this baby and she was looking for a home for this eight month old, perfectly healthy baby girl and her mom was dying of stage four breast cancer.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: She was 23 years old at the time.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: She was raised in foster care.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: She rode home from her bilateral mastectomy on the bus with a bus token and drains hanging out.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: So I thought about it.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: I called some people struggling with infertility.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: You know, we had three small kids I mean, our youngest was 15 months.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: I could not sleep.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: And so finally, after three days, I couldn't sleep.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: My husband's like what the heck is wrong with you?
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: You're up all night, whatever.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: And I'm like I can't stop thinking about this young mom.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: She's like in and out of her car, Steve, she doesn't have groceries and she has a baby and she's sick.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: And I was like can we just meet her?
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: You know, just for groceries, just for groceries.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: We'll just help her out for groceries.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: So she gets off the bus and I'm assuming it's her.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: She has a black mini skirt on this cute black shirt and this neon pink wig and she's walking with authority and I'm like, oh, she's going to want to give me a hug.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: I can't wait to give her a hug.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: I've been talking to her for two weeks, you guys.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: She walked directly past me like I wasn't even there, and walked straight up to my husband and looked him straight in the face and she said I need help with my baby, I'm sick and I want her to have a better life than I had.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: And that was it.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: His heart melted in a puddle.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: We went in, we bought her some groceries, we got an attorney.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Five weeks later we had full legal custody of Lexi.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: She moved in with us and we spent the next year taking care of her mom, taking her to treatment.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: Mind deal, I'm not lifestyles of the rich and famous, so I'm schlepping four kids in the chemo room, Then we drop her off, then we go to the park, then we come back and pick her up.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: She was so happy, you guys, because she had gone to treatment alone the whole time.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: The adversity someone faces that's underinsured is something like I had never seen before.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: And so for the next year we kind of we just took her to treatment and she passed away a little bit after she turned 24.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: And, you guys, even in the work I do and the stuff we deal with it, it's still the hardest thing I've ever seen in my life.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: She gave me the biggest gift ever, both in Lexi and the fact that right before she died she was like in the last three days.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: The last few words she said to me were like make sure young people do self breast exams, how they can die of breast cancer.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: And I did the first, my first ever self breast exam and she was 18 months, had been passed away and I found a lump.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: And I wasn't worried because I thought I was invincible and I thought there is no way that I'm going to have a baby, adopt another baby, watch this person die and have breast cancer.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: Like I wasn't worried and I found I found this hard lump.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: I mean it was ultrasound biopsy.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Three days later I was diagnosed with the exact same kind of aggressive breast cancer as Lexi's mom.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: I was so angry, so angry, I was scared, I was terrified.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: My kids just watched this.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: They were going to watch me die.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: Lexi was going to lose two moms to breast cancer before she went to kindergarten and so for the next few few weeks I went to every single doctor you could imagine.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: I went to treatment at Ohio State, which is about 45 minutes from where I live, but they were doing a clinical trial for this drug called Herceptin that wasn't available yet that for early stage cancers.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: You know I met this amazing person in treatment and her name was Stephanie Spielman and I didn't know who she was.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: Her husband was in the NFL.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Big Ohio State guy stopped and was on Oprah to when Stephanie got breast cancer to raise money for this kind of aggressive breast cancer at this point, Stephanie stage four, because she didn't get this drug that, like we all needed, called Herceptin.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: So we become these fast friends.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: Our kids sit there and watch TV while we get poisoned.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: We say we become on the same treatment schedule.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: Right, Well, I get done with treatment and she's on treatment forever.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: But we still meet at least quarterly, three to four times a year, bring the kids to play and we're always in touch.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: So about five years after I was diagnosed, she started getting a lot worse and her husband was inducted into that hollow fame on Ohio State and she walked out there.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: Mind you, she's super model, right, Like super model, and she's out there, her head's this big from brain metastasis.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: She's on a wheelchair to prove to you that breast cancer isn't pretty whatever.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: And we would always talk about how, when we both got better, she would do research and I would write a program for the care side of things.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: So I saw her the next week for the last time and she was in her house and she was only coherent for about 60 seconds and she said held my hand.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: And she said don't, don't use my death as an excuse.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: You know your purpose, and I cried the entire way home from Columbus like had to pull over and cried, and I wrote a grant, begrudgingly because I was like, check it off my list.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: I have to do this to honor Stephanie.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: I'm going to write this grant.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: We're never going to get it.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: We have no money, no privilege, success, and you don't get grants and foundations unless you have proven success and sustainability.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: We had $2,000 in a pipe dream, basically, and so I just didn't think another thing of it.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: And then I'm speaking at a university about young women doing self breast exams and I get back to the car.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: I have a blackberry.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: It's 2012.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: I remember this because it wasn't super easiest to text.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: I have 31 text messages from the Ellen DeGeneres show from that they announced on the Ellen DeGeneres show that Pinkerman PRG received the grant for $45,000, that it was a billionaire out of Texas I thought it was spam, but his website looked so bad.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Even billionaires need good marketing.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: We get it yeah.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, oh, but I'm fulfilling my promise to stuff, and it was for $45,000 and there was a little tiny mustard seed and it literally said I believe in pipe dreams Like he was a total business man, he had a foundation because he needed to put money from oil right, Like he didn't have.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: It wasn't the normal foundation, like, prove this.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: I mean it was a paragraph this long.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: When you think about the grants I have to write, we write today.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: It was a paragraph this big.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: So, anyways, I was like, oh my gosh now, what are we going to do?
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: I sort of just pulled a $100,000 budget out of the air and now we have to find somebody to make the meals.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: So we wrote the program for three meals a week for your entire family House cleaning rides to treatment and peer support and we said that we would to sync them.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: If you were early stage cancer, we would do two to three months of treatment.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: If you were late stage cancer, we would do six to nine months worth of these services and you could tailor the service to yourself.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: So that's how we started.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm trying to figure out what a transition would be to actually get into this conversation, because that is such a wild story, heather.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's wild.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: And I think one of the things that does not shock me any longer in our work is how often these stories of nudges and just unbelievable things sync up.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: You can call it divine, you can call it cosmic, you can call it coincidence, but there are so many stories like this and nonprofit, where an opportunity is presented and the shocking is presented in front of us, the impossible is presented in front of us, and there are those individuals who somehow can take that moment, like you, heather.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: You take it in and you're like no, I'm going to take this moment that was passed to me and I'm going to make something out of it.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: And when I take a step back and I see what you have done, I mean Pink Ribbon Good is such a dynamic and massive organization that is spun from this woman getting off of a bus at 23 years old with pipes coming out of her and a newborn, and to me it's a collective of women and family stepping forward, saying no more and saying we've got a wrap community in this and so what an incredible story.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Lucky all of us that you step forward and seize that moment.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: I can tell you this is a very personal conversation because I have a very dear friend about to go through her last chemo for breast cancer next week.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: Love you, amy.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: And so I just want to talk about how does one with four small children who is going through breast cancer treatment began to build an organization.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: What did you learn about building a board, maintaining a team and just getting that initial bench of support behind you?
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: I'd love to start there.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: Great.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: So first of all I do want to go back to Alexis really quick.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: So Lexi's mom was named Alexis and I do think about one thing you said earlier, like think about how hard it is when you have support, life, baby, cancer, everything.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: And I just want to give credit to her, like I don't know.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: I mean think about this.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: Like she walked into a courtroom with no support and said I need to find a home for my baby because.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: So she wanted what was best for her, even though I don't know if I would have wanted to do that as a mom, I would have wanted to believe I could get better, or I wouldn't have wanted to believe you know all of this.
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: And she put all of that aside for this baby who, by the way, just turned 22.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: Anyway, yeah, she's pretty much in California playing soccer.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: She didn't get that from me, so anyways.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: So what I want to say is it didn't start right after I was done with treatment.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: I was mad.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: So if you look at it, I'm going to be in March this year I'll be 19 years, cancer free.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: How crazy is that?
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be 50.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: I never thought I would live to see 50.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: Prg is, you know, 11 years old.
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: So it's not like I was like, boom, let's go.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: It was with Stephanie's death is when I felt so incredibly convicted and I didn't think about building a team.
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: If I'm being brutally honest.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: I thought about I go, babe.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: I think I'm going to start this and I don't want you to have any high hopes to my husband.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: I'm going to work 10 hours a week.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: I can't be working a lot, because what if I die?
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: What if I die?
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: I got things to do For 10 hours a week and I'm going to know every single mom and their kids that we serve.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: That's my whole goal.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: That was my whole goal.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: So after four months and we had 400 meals that we were delivering in Costco bags and they were thawing out before we got to the people's houses I called my husband and I was like I think I'm going to have to quit.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: The meals are spoiling, I don't know.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: Then it was just like I took a pause.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: He sent me these, surprised me with these strawberries that I love from New York City, and they came to our house, which he's not like that.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: He doesn't do that a lot.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: He's awesome, but he doesn't like send things and literally I was like, oh my God, they are frozen and they came from New York City.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: We have to ship the meals.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: So we paused for two weeks on meals.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: Then we started shipping vegetarian meals, because you can ship vegetarian meals without a license.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: Then we got the license for the meat and then we just started shipping.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: So we're calling UPS and I'm negotiating all these prices and the meals are exploding in people's houses because we don't have the proper whatever.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: I mean, we know nothing right.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: The other thing is driving patients.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: So I wanted every single person to know the person that was driving them.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: So they would live 40 miles away and go to the research hospital and how do you get them there?
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: And I met with a couple of other bigger nonprofits that weren't in my realm and they're like you're never going to be able to do this.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: You can't, it doesn't make sense.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: And I just looked at them and I said Lexi's mom rode home on a bus.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: So I'm not quitting on this.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: And there was like no Uber.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: We were literally like spending hundreds of dollars to drive people places From the beginning.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: The biggest thing that happened is after I got the 45,000, I went to a local philanthropist who I did not know and she is my hero.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: I met her in the coffee shop I begged five people because I knew she had a lot of money and she lived in my town and she met me there and she's 80 and her name was Pat Robinson and I pitch it to her and then I look at her and I say I need $45,000.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: And she's like oh, she's like 411.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: I do not 411.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: Heather, typically when I don't know a foundation and they haven't done anything, I start them out around 5,000 and then we grow from there and I said, pat, I don't know eight other people that I have to ask $5,000 for, and people are dying of cancer and I just need you to give me the money and I promise you I will not let you down.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: And she was like I feel like you're not going to let me say no.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: And I'm like I promise you I will be good on it.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: And she's like my grandma now I see her all the time.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: She's 91.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: And she said, okay, she goes, but you have to promise me two things.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: And I said, okay, you will go stomp in everybody's office in Dayton, who is running a huge organization and they are going to be too qualified to be on your board and you're going to beg them because you're going to need them for where you're going and you need to surround yourself by doers, donors and door openers.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: So I left and she gave me the 45,000 and that's how we started.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, pat, I need like a T-shirt and a mug for F Pat's sayings this is so good.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, I want to transition because your founding story obviously you are just starting with what you have and you want to do it all, but you now have transitioned.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, you're taking this nonprofit national.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: You had to get organized.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: I feel like Pat is in this mode of coach that you need people around this.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Walk us through.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: How did you start to build and activate?
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: We talk about activating our rapid fans.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: We talk about building believers instead of donors.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: How did you functionally do that and what were the next steps?
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: So I just went to every place.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: So I knew that the COO of children's was a breast cancer survivor and I knew she cared a lot about the community and her secretary didn't didn't necessarily give me a meeting.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: So I just showed up and waited outside and I was like I told all of these really busy people, my budget's $100,000.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: You guys, this is going to take you, for this is their running joke now because we grew so fast this is going to take you four hours a year.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: You just need to have four meetings.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: Your names are going to help me.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: I'm barely going to work 10 hours a week.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: I just want to be able to help these people right here.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: This is the great way of nonprofit founders always sell themselves.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: We get it.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: Like, oh, 100%.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: She said, yes, I'll do it.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: Then I went to the CEO of all the YMCA.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: Same thing, so, and the other greatest thing that Pat told me, which was surround yourself with the people that are absolutely strongest non-yes people in your weakness.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: So for me, guess what that was?
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: Reading a PNL, what even was a PNL?
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: Right, I mean seriously, and accounting for all of that, I had to take a class.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: I would like, if you give me, let me speak in front of 10,000 people.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: I'm not nervous Make me walk into Panera to meet with my small finance team.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: I would literally feel like I was going to throw up.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: We're the same.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: We're the same, absolutely.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: So those people helped me and we grew fast, like so we started with those few meals that I was telling you about.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: I don't even know the number of meals we served in 2012.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: In 2013, we served 10,250 meals and we were only in Dayton and Cincinnati, you know.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: Last year we served 190,000 meals, you know, and so we had to figure it out.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: But because I had that five, we had a board of like 10, but we had five or six or nine, I guess five or six really strong business people and they helped us with the strategy of growth when we started going into the new areas, serving more people, working with the hospitals.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: You know all of those things I mean.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Now we have like a real business plan, a matrix for growth, what we need.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: We have data where you come from, you know.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: I do want to highlight another story, if you don't care, in this transition that also involves Lexi.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: So and it's a very big part of PRG, of who we are today.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: So, fast forward to.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: Lexi's a sophomore and, like I mentioned to you, she has all these division one soccer coaches asking about her and, mind you, I know nothing about division one sports.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: I'm very competitive but I'm not athletic.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: She we live in Dayton.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: She would drive an hour and 15 minutes to play on the ECNL team.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: All my other kids, I barely let them drive on the highway.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: By the time they were 16, we had to practice.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: When she hit 16, I'm like go Cincinnati.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: Like I am so tired of driving Cincinnati.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: Lexi laughs about it.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: Plus, she drove like a grandma, but anyways.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: So we fly to Phoenix for this ECNL tournament and I had never seen anything like it.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: We get there, 75 coaches along the sidelines and I'm like, if you leave Dayton to fly to Phoenix for a soccer, you're clear, you're clearly in the cult.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: I mean, I was like, yeah, you're in, I'm sailing in every area of my life.
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: Right, prg is about to hit the $1 million mark.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: We basically have three, maybe three employees.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: I mean that's stretching it, with some people that aren't paid.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: I feel like I'm not doing well there.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: The boxes are still exploding.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: We're doing all of these things and, mind you, at this point we're in Columbus.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: But Columbus was a different challenge because it was a research hospital.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: So we had so many more stage four patients, which made our budget higher, all of these things.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: And I said, lex, I have 345 emails in my inbox and Steve is with my other daughter somewhere else and I say Lex, give me 45 minutes, just give me 45 minutes.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: And I have to go at the Phoenix airport over three terminals.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: And I tell you this because how crazy it is.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: I couldn't find a place to plug in my map, so I go, sit there.
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: I'm like, give me 45 minutes.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: I'm going to try to get through as many of the easiest emails I can.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: Five minutes later, of course, she comes over Mom, can I have $5 for Starbucks?
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: And I was like, sure, Hand her my card.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: This guy sitting beside me goes did you adopt her?
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: I was like, clearly.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: And then he goes tell me your story.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: And I was like, oh my God, I have all these emails.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: So I tell him as fast as I can and he goes.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: You're never going to believe this.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: I'm the VC for the guy that started Amazon, that sold the software it called Jungly to Jeff Bezos, so Amazon could sell more than books.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: We're working on AI for breast cancer.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: Now we're going to want to work with you.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is one of the nudges I'm talking about.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: This is the cosmicness of the universe.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: So I walk back over and I tell this to my dad.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: My parents are with me.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: My dad goes this is single-handedly going to change PRG.
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: I go, dad, I'm never going to hear from that guy again.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: So this is May of 2017, okay, so August of 2017, I don't hear anything.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: It's 10 pm on a Sunday night.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: My phone rings.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: It says Neil Phoenix airport, because that's what I put him in my phone as.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: So, steve, I have it on speaker and my husband's like listening.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: He's like I mean I have Raqesh on the phone.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: You know the guy I was telling you about, the guy the founder of Junglee.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: I have Raqesh on the phone.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: We're going to need you to fly to St Louis tomorrow.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: We'll get a car for you.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: I mean, I live in a cornfield, basically sort of, and he's like we'll get a car for you, we'll take you to the Cincinnati airport and we're going to need to talk to you at WashEel.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: So Steve's like did you look him up?
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: I get off the phone, decide I was rattled.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: I call back and say I'll go five in the morning, right, we get in the biggest fight probably we've gotten in years, steve and I.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: I can't do this.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: Columbus isn't doing.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm not cut out for this.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: This is way da, da, da da.
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: And he goes Heather, get on the freaking plane.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: This is what God's called you to do.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: Get on the plane.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: Brave people like show up scared.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: So I sit in the back of that car the whole hour to Cincinnati like what the heck I'm doing.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: And somehow when I just got there I was like might as well go for it.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: I have no idea who these people really are.
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: So we sat down and I said to him again hadn't looked into him that much and I said listen, let's just know where we're at.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: I'm here so that you you don't look like you're a really rich guy trying to become more rich that you have a heart.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: So I'm letting you know I'll come out and I'll tell you all the things of a breast cancer survivor and I'll be your biggest advocate.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: But you have to open your Rolodex for me so that we can grow PRG nationally.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: He goes.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is the difference between somebody who has a job and somebody who has a passion, because you are not going to take no for an answer.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: You are going to fight for that mission, and this entire story as it's just has so many incredible and unbelievable tenets and winding paths to it.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: But it was literally like the little nonprofit that could like.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: It just kept going and people kept showing up, and I think the thing that I love so much about it, heather, is it could have been a date in Ohio breast cancer organization and I got to tie it back to something that happened to John and I about 10 years ago.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: We were working in healthcare philanthropy because I want you to talk about what you've done to increase awareness and how you've expanded this, and we did a lot of fundraising for our cancer institute.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: But when we went and sat down with them and said what do you need, like what's not basic, what do people not know about in terms of the cancer treatment?
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: And they said the nutrition is so important and there's no energy to be able to cook efficiently for this, can you help us with meals?
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: And so we created a little program called CanServe.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: I would love to take credit, but we didn't come up with it, we just funded it, but it was partnering with a local Votech that had a culinary arts group.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: They got together with local growers and sourced all of this clean food and they made three meals a day for cancer patients, and so everybody that came through thousands of them got I don't even remember how many weeks it was, but anyway, the point is we had no idea about nutrition, we had no idea about the various needs, and I think what you're saying here is you're taking that awareness to a much broader group, and I felt truly changed by it.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: So I want you to talk about how you flex this platform and now you have this brand, and what have you learned about the awareness and the understanding of the situation and circumstances of clients to ensure that your business is really aligned with what clients need?
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: And how did you put that on steroids, now that you had a national platform to do so?
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, good questions, all of the above.
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: So basically all the issues that I told you we had with the meals.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: The benefit that the Bay gives you, right, is a lot of innovative things, and so someone at the Bay it's always one degree of separation introduced us to a meal service plan out there, and that was our first time.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Originally, when we grew to St Louis, we hired a chef, just like Ohio, and then had them flash-phrase.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: The meals then worked with a logistics company.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: It just wasn't scalable for what we were doing.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: But I'm loyal to a fault.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: So I do have to tell you, not working with that chef almost did me it.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: Like when I had to talk to him about growth and figuring out that we had to go with the meal service program, I cried like someone died, honestly, because that guy had been there for me and figured things out, but he didn't have the capability to figure out how to ship foods across state line and be able to give us the price point that we needed.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: So since then, in full entrepreneurship, we started with one company, covid, happened the meal service plans you would have thought would have gone crazy, which they did, but some of them couldn't sustain.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: So then that one wasn't doing good, so they increased our price so ridiculously that we would have been able to serve like 250,000 less meals.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: So then we went to this other company who I thought would be forever in business, and then they got bought out by Nestle and stopped their B2C program.
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: Give me two weeks notice, mind you.
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: I'm sending 15,000 meals a month.
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: Give us two weeks notice at Christmas, where no one works, we were able to land and this is just January of this year with Fresh and Lean, and they're privately held.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: They are based out of California, but they care.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: The thing I wouldn't give up on you guys is healthy meals, like I wasn't going to give them crap and you could have found solutions for non-healthy meals, but I was like, if I'm not going to eat it when I have cancer, why would I want them to eat it?
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: And that's a hard place to be.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: So Fresh and Lean.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: Now we have all these things that I don't know the words to right, like API and our back end matches their back end, and you know, they go over my pay grade and they can choose their own meals.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: And if it's someone that's not tech savvy, then we can tell that their grandma is a tech savvy and then we can call them and they can choose their own meals through us.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: Crazy, crazy.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: We know what kind of insurance they have so we can write those specific grants.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: We know how many rides they've taken.
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: But then Rakesh's daughter, ela, was 15 when I met her and by the time I left their house she called me her, and Rakesh called me and told me she was going to quit high school to come intern with me in Ohio for a little while and bring PRG to the bay, help bring PRG to the bay.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: And so then, when she was in college, after all of this, she helped work with Uber to help create a code so that you could have a code that would only go for our rides.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: All of this is helping us scale.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: Like so out of my league, this is so out of all of our leagues, same with the community.
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: Like this is like I was talking to my husband last night about this interview, like if you were in the bay or if you're in St Louis or if you're in Dayton, you're like, oh, if you meet this PRG family with this PRG family, they know it's them.
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: Like we have all these pink trucks and they'll say we provided 10,000, we've provided 10,000 meals.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: It's them, it's so much bigger than me, it's so much bigger than all of us.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: We are one family and in that they make the difference.
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: And when I'm at an event and they're like, oh, my gosh, is your person complain about?
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: Because we have like 60 pink truck, pink trucks now.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: So they're bright pink and they have our logo all over them.
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: They're like does your driver complain?
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: And they're like, oh no, we provided 1200 meals with our truck.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: It's like a point of pride for me yeah.
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: So so those are the things that like, I don't you know when I listen to them, like even the podcast on Airbnb and how they started.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: Well, if I would have known all the issues, I wouldn't have done it.
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: Like, that's how I feel, right, Like if I would have known all these things, same with everything you did.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: So a lot of it's a growing curve.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, I would sit out there in California with some of those meetings with founders of companies that like open table and weird things that you use what's up app or what's app or whatever, and I would get it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it and I would go to the bathroom.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, love them.
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: They were friends.
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: But I would go to the bathroom and I would call my husband I need to come home.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: I shouldn't be here.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: I can't even like the first time.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: They were like, so what is your business plan?
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: And I was like I don't know, to make sure 300 people get their meals next week?
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: Like that was my plan.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: So you really had to grow and I had to really be willing to grow.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: Get the education.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: I took a class on reading a P and L, so I knew my finances forward and backwards.
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: I took a class on how to present, you know, a real business plan.
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: But you know, sarah Blakely is my hero and I won't trade like the passion of who I am.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: I don't.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: I don't raise money orthodox.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: Like I come in and they're like, why playing them five?
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, well, I need 50.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: Like I don't.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: I am not normal in that aspect, but I did have to become better, become more polished, become a better leader.
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: You know, sometimes I still pull in here and there's all these cars and I have nowhere to park and I'm like, oh Lord, I really hope all these people aren't counting on me to hold it together.
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: Like it's still so surreal so many times.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Heather Salazar, I love the human that you are.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: I love just your open arms just for people in your life and the way that you have led this organization in that way too, cause it's so much more beautiful because of how you've let people in without outside of your capabilities, outside of what, maybe, where, you're, you know, innate knowings.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: You have grown so much.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: So I'm curious, like, looking back now, what would you go back and tell young Heather on this journey?
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: What would you say now, like maybe what not to sweat, or what would you kind of encourage her?
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: So so, the first time, this is still hard for me.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: The first time that I had like an employee issue.
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: Like, I think, everyone's my friend, how could you not like?
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: me.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: I like you.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: How could you not like me?
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: I suffer from this as well, oh, I, I, yeah, I let things go too long and it's so weird cause I'm a straight shooter, no shocker.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: But I'll come in and I'm mad.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: I'll be like I'm mad, We've got to figure this out.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: Then I'm over it.
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: And people don't get over it or they don't move on.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: And the first time that, like, I had to hire people that were like so much smarter than me in certain aspects, my board literally sat me down and they said you're going to lose 50% of your employees.
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: This is big, You're going to this.
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: You're expecting more things, you're more professional.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: And I was like these people are lifers, no way.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: And guess what?
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I lost 50% of my employees, I mean, and I was like so hurt.
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: And now I'm just like, wow, they're on to doing great things, we're on to doing great things.
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: Like if I could somehow not take that personally and also encourage them.
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: But I'm still not great at that.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: There is no clean journey in this and founding a nonprofit and I just commend so much for what you've done and and I I want you to give some counsel to individuals out there who are going through our evolved partnerships, because we've been talking about this for two years and I want people to embrace and feel the boldness of Heather Salazar when they walk into an organization and they want to pitch to them and say this is why I think there is value in our partnership for you and for me.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: I want you to talk about how you've done this, what counsel you would give them, because you have corporate partnerships across the country, people who are pouring into the mission of Pink Ribbon.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Good, Talk to us about what you've learned about collaborations and what counsel you would give to other nonprofits who are really trying to make those bold partnership asks.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: So I think the biggest thing is to always, always be willing to take feedback.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: So, like I think, when you're able to say how did I do If you didn't know me, would you still agree with what I'm saying, like you know meaning, like it's strong enough.
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: If I'm in Silicon Valley and not right here with my good buddy Ernst Concrete, my one of my first pink trucks, you know what would you do?
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: And they'll say you talked too fast.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: Or Tom Robinson always used to say I had to turn my hearing aid down, heather, but I barely ever tell you no, you have to be willing to take that and sometimes, being self-aware, I do think, as I've led more people, as our team gets bigger, as I'm starting to create a leadership team, the easiest people to coach and grow is if you are self-aware right.
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: So I know sometimes for a long time I could walk in and I could go.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: Here's my story.
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: But I love it and you would be it.
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: But the bigger, the more times people have heard 50 million people pitch because you know they're doing the WhatsApp.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: You have to be polished.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: I have to pitch differently in the Bay than I do in Cincinnati and I had a lot of critical feedback, where sometimes I'm like, dang, am I cut out for this?
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: So one I think it's to be willing to to to have critical feedback.
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: The second is I don't know if you guys like Bob Goff, but I love Bob Goff.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: I love Bob Goff.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: He has a phone, his cell phone, in the back of his books.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: It's insane.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: I know, I know he's like I'm going to give this to me some and he's like ask for what you want, ask for what you want every day.
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: Ask for what you want.
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: The other thing that I think is my secret sauce which probably annoys people sometimes, like my husband is I just never overthink it in my head it's gonna go good.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: It doesn't do good.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: I'm crushed because I Love your kitty optimism.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: Me too.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: We're ridiculous idealist.
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: They're gonna give me the money and, and so I think that my secret sauce is I just always assume it's going to work out.
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: Now, clearly, it doesn't always work out and you know, even in the hardest part of my job, guys is my whole family.
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: We watch people die.
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: That is not easy.
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: That is not easy, and they but you know what Our, our lives, my entire family's life, and they will tell you this is so much better with these people.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: They live in the moment.
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: They don't worry about getting their hair wet I'm sometimes they don't have hair they go down the slide.
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: They think I don't know if I'm going to see this, so I'm gonna show up right now.
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: They're not on their phones, they're not sweating the small stuff.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: They make us better humans and the minute I'm not sobbing once a week for someone who's going through some is the minute I'm done, because I shouldn't be doing this.
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: So I also think letting people in and truly just learning from them is Is the best gift I've ever been given.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: It is such a privilege that these people have changed my life and you know, I Just lost my vice chair and she was a powerhouse over mid-mark which makes all the hospital beds.
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: In her mantra she's she spoke at our last event we moved our event up because we have two board members very sick, which so we moved our event up to June, which we always have it September 16th and she spoke and she's like, don't wait, don't wait to tell people you love them, don't wait to use the good China, don't wait to go on vacation.
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: Like, don't wait.
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: And when you can learn from those people and live your life like that, you are living such a great life.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: And the other thing that Stephanie said is Don't use my death as an excuse, but as an a purpose for everything that you do.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: So what a legacy you get to live on through these people.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: The only way you honor us is by loving your family and living big.
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: That's the only way you honor these people.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: So that's just the way we have to choose to live.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: I mean I love that you brought it back to community.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: That's our rally cry here.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: It feels like that's what centers you, it's what started your story, it's what surrounds and uplifts your story today.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: So we have to ask and you've given us so many great stories, but I wonder if you would take us to a moment of philanthropy in your life or journey that has stuck with you.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: You really saw the power of philanthropy.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: Take us back to that.
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: It's no, it's no joke around here at PRG that the bag kicks my butt.
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: I'm just telling you it's hard, it's hard.
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: They, I don't understand.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: They have a lot of zeros by their name, but somehow I can't always get them to give money.
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: It's a different, it's a different world out there and the need, the disparity gap is so huge.
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: You're either boom or your boom.
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: And so about a year ago, and you know, after COVID, one thing that we did that was super scary is every day I had a $50,000 event canceling as soon as it started and I was like oh my god.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: Yet 50% of the people we were serving were at the poverty line and their kids ate three meals a day at school and they stopped going to school in one day.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: So I took everybody together and I said if you want a job and you're still on this team and your heart's beating like, welcome to the fundraising team, we got to figure this out.
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: And then I made a decision that I Pretty much was seven out of ten.
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: Sure it would sink us.
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: I said Everybody that's at the poverty line, we are gonna give them five meals a week instead of three, because their kids aren't eating and they can't get to the soup kitchen and they can't get to the food lines Old have.
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: So it gave us about six weeks until we were out of business, six weeks and I was like, if this is, this is my hill to die on, it's the right thing to do.
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: Every other nonprofit I knew shut their door and I was like these people don't have food and they have to go.
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: I needed an army to go with me to chemo, like literally an army, and these people have to go and buy themselves and like Alien suits, basically with mask, had to tell, and they can't feed their kids.
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: So I just thought, okay, this is gonna be our hill to die on, but we're gonna do it.
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: So anybody's business that wasn't hurting at that time was construction, which, luckily, I have a lot of construction.
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: Whatever, I asked them to double up and they were like Heather, we don't know what's gonna happen.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: I go, these people are dying and they can't be their kids.
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: So we just kept going.
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: And then, as you know, there was PPP and clearly we made it.
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: But that gave me credibility in the bay, okay, but one time last year when I was like I can't, I don't know if we're gonna get it, my patient coordinator came over and she called me and she goes Heather, you always say we can make decisions and not have to ask permission, ask for forgiveness.
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, yeah, I'm all about that, feel fast, feel forward.
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: She said Remy lives in a rented room and she has stage 4 cancer and she met all the criteria and she wouldn't take our food.
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: And she said I need a ride.
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: I need a ride to have surgery tomorrow.
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: I don't have this, I don't have anyone.
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: Her emergency contact contact was her landlord in a rented room where 10 people were living in a four-room house and finally Diane goes.
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: She wouldn't take our food and I kept pushing why she wouldn't take our food and finally she goes it's okay, I just need a ride.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: She said I have no family here and I live in this rented room and I've learned to survive on bread and water Because I don't have a refrigerator.
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: And Diane goes, I know we don't have any money, but I sent her a refrigerator from Amazon so she could get our food.
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: And that's when I was like we're gonna figure it out in the bay.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: I just think back to that time.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: I'm in COVID and I just think of the paralysis so many of us felt, and I think that a word I really want nonprofits to embrace and you have done it Culturally and embedded it culturally into your nonprofit is we've got to get some moxie, we got to get comfortable with taking that risk that our mission deserves and and figuring it out and then Socializing and telling the story of what's gonna happen if we do and what's gonna happen if we don't, and allow people to rise into that moment.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: And I want to be a part of missions that allow People the dignity to have more than food and water when they're going through stage four cancer, and I think the fact that you empowered your team to embrace that says so much to me about the culture you have created of moxie with and peak ribbogud, and so I just feel so grateful that we've had this conversation.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: You have been dropping bombs the entire time that are full of truth and wisdom.
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: We end with a one good thing and I wonder what is yours could be a piece of advice, a life hack?
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: What would you leave with our audience?
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: Two things I'm gonna leave to one.
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: I want to tell you that this summer Lexi Volunteered here which she never has because she plays soccer and she came in to staff meeting and she said I got to give three people Rides today and my mom didn't have a ride Full circle.
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: Baby, that was amazing.
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: The second thing is Look for a glimmer of hope.
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: During COVID, like what you said, every day we would ring a bell or yell a loud thing for a glimmer of hope, to try to see we were gonna make it and the glimmers were small, like Someone brought us cookies today because we're still working.
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: Those were our glimmers of hope, but just look at our glimmer of hope.
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: At a time to get through, and one step leads to another.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: The words of this community that surrounded this thing are just flowing through this conversation.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Heather, I just we're just so delighted to be able to get to meet you today and hear this story.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: Wonder if you connect us up.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: How do you show up online?
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: Where can people find y'all, what do y'all need?
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: and yeah, what do you?
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: guys need know the ways to connect.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: Well, just in case McKenzie Scott's listening about 10 million dollars.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: All of our listeners need that, yes.
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: Yes, or Sarah Blakely.
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: She's my hero.
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: You know we actually in all truth you can find us at pink ribbon good org.
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: You can also find us on all the socials as pink ribbon good.
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: The other thing that I think is so awesome with our growth if anyone's listening, is super passionate about this.
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: We actually do have like a matrix now and so there are things we know to go into different people's regions as we're trying to go a hospital partner, an ambassador, you know advisory board and we could raise money and that's how we are going into these new regions.
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: So if anyone's super passionate, like they can reach out to us.
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: And that's how we got to Buffalo and that's kind of how we're going to Louisville next, and so that would be awesome to you.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: You are planting your community, you are growing, you're expanding, and I just think of all the Alexis's out there who would have been alone had you not listen to your nudge.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: And so thank you, brave Heather Salazar, for being such a model of Resilience moxie.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: We are rooting for you and and thank you on behalf of the Amys in all of our lives who are going through breast cancer and and wrapping all of us in community and just Basic necessities.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: You are a hero.
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for being here.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: Friends, and you probably hear it in our voices, but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before.
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: We'd love for you to come join our good community.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: It's free and you can think of it as the after-party to each podcast episode.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: Sign up today at we are for good Dot-com.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: Backslash hello and one more thing if you love what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating interview?
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: It means the world to us and your support helps more people find this community.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much, friends.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: Can't wait to our next conversation, you.