Latest / The Town Square Podcast / Zayvion Sheppard on For Atlanta. By Atlanta., Mentorship and Community Giving — E103

Transcript

Zayvion Sheppard on For Atlanta. By Atlanta., Mentorship and Community Giving — E103 · The Town Square Podcast

0:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the town square podcast where local advocates for a better community bring their different perspectives into the messy middle to have a conversation where aim is unity not uniformity a nailed at this time.
0:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I was ready.
0:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I was ready.
0:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I was ready.
0:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You did, but I was ready for man.
0:17
[SPEAKER_01]: I was ready.
0:17
[SPEAKER_02]: One day we're going to get it in unison and it's going to look like people are going to think we've been practicing.
0:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
0:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
0:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
0:23
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not going to do it either.
0:24
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not how to happen by accident because I'm been like, well, I have a little too corny for me now.
0:29
[SPEAKER_02]: But you're starting to tackle it all together now.
0:31
[SPEAKER_02]: You didn't do that.
0:32
[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't do it.
0:34
[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't do it.
0:35
[SPEAKER_01]: We got to do it like that.
0:36
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we got to do it like that.
0:37
[SPEAKER_01]: We got, we have somebody who was no stranger.
0:41
[SPEAKER_01]: to the Town Square podcast.
0:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that a timer?
0:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
0:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Two times?
0:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
0:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, indeed.
0:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, indeed.
0:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Go ahead and tell us who it is.
0:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it's the distinguished guest.
0:53
[SPEAKER_02]: It is the founder.
0:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And I guess, President CEO of...
0:57
[SPEAKER_02]: for Atlanta by Atlanta.
0:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh-huh.
1:00
[SPEAKER_02]: But we know him as Zavion Jernard.
1:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'll see.
1:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, for the through your government.
1:04
[SPEAKER_02]: They're not going home.
1:05
[SPEAKER_02]: They're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going home, they're not going
1:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll take it.
1:25
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll take a mess, so good to have you.
1:27
[SPEAKER_00]: It's good to be back.
1:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Good to be back.
1:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
1:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Last time, I was a little bit nervous, but I'm with family now.
1:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I really do look forward to our conversation.
1:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And thank you all for allowing me to share this platform with you.
1:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I really mean it.
1:39
[SPEAKER_00]: No, man.
1:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
1:41
[SPEAKER_02]: When people ask me, hey, who's coming up on the podcast?
1:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'll name, well, I liked it.
1:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And I mean, U.S. Congress, you know, candidates, and Senator candidates, I go and Xavier on Shepard, and people who say, well, they don't hear at all.
1:54
[SPEAKER_01]: We got the we got the book more of that episode John Hartliss district.
1:58
[SPEAKER_02]: He's like tells.
2:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe I said hello.
2:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, I'm just like I got we got we got we got star power up in here Well, man listen just tell us I'm just curious
2:12
[SPEAKER_01]: What's been happening, man?
2:13
[SPEAKER_01]: What's been going on since the last time you sat at this spot?
2:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've had, we've
2:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether you're opening your first check in account and buying a home, growing a business or planning for the future, you deserve a bank that knows you by name and is invested in the community you call home.
2:39
[SPEAKER_02]: At United Bank in Covington Local Decisions, Personal Service and Lasting Relationships have been at the heart of what we do for generations.
2:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Our team is here to provide the financial solutions that you need while supporting the people, businesses and organizations that make Newton County such a great place to live.
2:55
[SPEAKER_01]: So stop by our coming to the office or visit access united.com to learn more about everything United Bank has to offer United Bank your community bank today tomorrow and wherever life takes you.
3:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Member FDSC equal housing lender in mls number 4130 5 4.
3:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I graduated.
3:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
3:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
3:24
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no.
3:25
[SPEAKER_00]: In between.
3:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
3:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, man, he's so busy.
3:29
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't remember me graduating.
3:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I did graduate.
3:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
3:31
[SPEAKER_00]: In between the last time that we were here.
3:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I got my degree in Pelocoscience in December 2025 from Georgia State University.
3:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
3:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
3:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
3:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Go Panthers as always.
3:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And I started my full-time job at Georgia State University.
3:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Also doing government community affairs.
3:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I had an opportunity last summer to work with Tidal Smith and company.
3:55
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a commercial real estate guy.
3:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Very renowned and highly respected in Atlanta and just learned a wealth about the power of relationships utilizing your network and using your gifts to be a blessing to somebody else.
4:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
4:10
[SPEAKER_00]: After that, then I went over to go work with the ladies over at the chamber, my chamber ladies The ladies and the ladies at the chamber The ladies at the chamber Debbie Harper Yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
4:31
[SPEAKER_00]: multiple companies, billions of dollars in revenue, you might see a CEO of Delta once or twice saying, you know, he might act like he remembers you, but you know, he's right.
4:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
4:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it was really a great experience to come home and to be able to put names and faces to some of the companies that I've seen for my entire life and to develop meaningful relationships.
4:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I went to a coffee called this morning and because of, um, you know, my time at Georgia state, I don't, you know, have this much time to be out here in the county and attend all the.
5:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
5:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Events as I normally do, but I came back this morning and it was just like coming back home.
5:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Mm-hmm.
5:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
5:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And people were like, oh my god, we haven't seen you in a minute where you've been up to it.
5:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, we're proud of you and not that good stuff.
5:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I like it to the experience when I came to James Pascals the first time after scholarship days.
5:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was a year after I spoke, but folks were like, I'll remember you.
5:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll remember you.
5:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome home.
5:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
5:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah.
5:28
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, ripping and running, and then, of course, for Atlanta by Atlanta, which we're going to talk a lot more about today, really putting a lot of intention and effort behind that, and behind our mission to help us many folks as we can.
5:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
5:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you were just kind of launched it.
5:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I think at the time, maybe year-and-a-half goes
5:45
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a publicly.
5:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
5:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.
5:47
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
5:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
5:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Use it all the paperwork done, I guess.
5:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Prior to that.
5:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
5:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And the dream had been a grant.
5:53
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
5:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you say, now, a trace said this, this is the kind of news to me.
5:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
5:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel some kind of way about this.
6:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why this is.
6:02
[SPEAKER_01]: These are me, and you have some kind of announcement, there's a big reveal, it's like, yeah, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, he doesn't know it,
6:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just like, you know what, we don't need this to do this.
6:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Bro, we don't need this to do.
6:33
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't need this to do.
6:33
[SPEAKER_01]: So where do we, where do we, where do we, where do we, where do we, where do we, where do we, where do we, where do we, where do we, where do we, where do we, where do we, where do we, where do we, where do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we, what do we,
6:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm writing a book, I'm writing a book, I'm writing a book, so I had an incredible conversation with one of my supervisors at Georgia State and she has been an incredible mentor and I live mine.
7:02
[SPEAKER_00]: for the longest time, and so she was actually on the interview committee for the position that I have.
7:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And during the interview process, I just went in and told my story from beginning to end.
7:13
[SPEAKER_00]: My upbringing and some of the experiences that I had.
7:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And afterwards, she came to me and she was like, oh my God, I didn't know you did all that stuff.
7:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know that, you know, you came from, you know, like your family background, and you were talking about stories with Dallas that I never even heard and like working at the chambers and all these things.
7:31
[SPEAKER_00]: like you have a lot of great experiences for someone on your age.
7:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we went to lunch a couple of months ago and she was like, have you ever considered writing a book?
7:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And full disclosure, a couple of people have come to me before and suggested that I write a book, but I never really took it serious.
7:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I'm just 22, like, what does anybody want to read that I have to write down?
7:55
[SPEAKER_00]: You'd be surprised.
7:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was like, you know, I'll put some thought into it before, but I haven't really done anything serious with it.
8:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And she was like, well, I would be more than willing to help get you connected with some folks that can help you actually get it out there.
8:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Because she's written books before.
8:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was like, okay, I can try, but I'm gonna need, you know, your guidance and your support.
8:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never done this before.
8:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And so she gave me a very simple challenge.
8:21
[SPEAKER_00]: She said most books are between 40 and 50,000 words and the thing that she does is she writes every single day for 40 days straight and so she was like every single day doesn't matter how much you write, how low do you write, just train yourself to write every single day and luckily the following week I went on vacation with my family and we were on the cruise and so I took my laptop with me and I sat on the balcony just signed up to sundown and knocked out half of the
8:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when I came back and I told her, she's like, Oh, so you're taking this series?
8:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I like that.
8:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I've completed the manuscript, also at the time that we were recording here, and beginning the next steps.
9:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
9:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Look at me.
9:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that is awesome.
9:05
[SPEAKER_01]: That is awesome.
9:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, do you have an editor and all of that?
9:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
9:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm about to say, because I know one.
9:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I know a brother would work publishing company.
9:19
[SPEAKER_01]: that's good.
9:19
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the time table on the on all of it?
9:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, when can we buy it on Amazon?
9:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, probably sometime next year.
9:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I would love for it to be spring the next year.
9:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
9:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is all, I can't say early stages anymore midstages.
9:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, where we're at right now.
9:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's, that's the hardest part.
9:36
[SPEAKER_00]: That is absolutely right.
9:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
9:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And so now it's just, you know, having the right conversations and getting it out to you all.
9:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So what was it like, man?
9:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, like, you know, my wife's story, right?
9:46
[SPEAKER_02]: You've told your story about it.
9:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Now you're, you're like codifying it, right?
9:49
[SPEAKER_02]: You're putting it down.
9:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
9:50
[SPEAKER_02]: It can't change now.
9:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, yeah.
9:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, right, right, right, right.
9:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
9:54
[SPEAKER_00]: What was it like, like, is it, is it very overwhelming, eye-opening, and just therapeutic, you know, have, like, I get very vulnerable about my upbringing.
10:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And I talk about, you know, the loss of my grandfather and how about impacted me.
10:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I talk about how my family's always supported me and all these great things and my step back coming into the picture and how he really helped me become a young man.
10:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I get very specific as relates to the experiences that I had.
10:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know,
10:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I, uh, the person who's been helping me, she asked me, okay, what do you want somebody to get at this book?
10:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Richard Targar audience.
10:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
10:33
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you want to, what do you want to get at this book?
10:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And my target audience, uh, really is two groups.
10:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, the first group are young up and coming, um, folks in their communities, um, who wish that they had some type of guide book on how to be a leader.
10:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, because the last time that came here, I remember talking about how when I was S.J.
10:52
[SPEAKER_00]: President,
10:54
[SPEAKER_00]: nobody gave me nothing.
10:55
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just like you go figure it out.
10:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe you do good.
10:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe you won't.
10:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Go lead Georgia State.
11:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
11:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I really took that into consideration while I was talking about my experiences.
11:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Being student by president high school and the relationships that I built.
11:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the rooms that I've had the privilege of being in the tables that I've had the privilege to sit at.
11:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the first target group really are young folks who are looking to make an impact in their community some way or shape or form.
11:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the second audience are y'all.
11:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Folks who are mentoring younger folks so that you can get a better understanding of what it is like for someone in my generation to try to climb up.
11:40
[SPEAKER_00]: the corporate world and try to make a difference in the challenges that we're facing, whether it's over social media or just society changing underneath our few every single day.
11:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully young folks like me and our monks like you can be able to take something meaningful from my book.
12:03
[SPEAKER_00]: The thing that I really want folks to get out of it is the power of investment.
12:09
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I am very honest about saying that there is nothing better about me.
12:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not smarter than most people.
12:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that much more than a majority of folks.
12:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And I even talk about how in a lot of my classes, I was not the smartest person in the room.
12:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew a lot of young brothers that look like me who were way smarter than me, but who have gone down the completely different path.
12:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And the only difference between their path and mine is someone decided to take their
12:39
[SPEAKER_00]: to expose me to something and so just encouraging folks, you know, to, you know, really evaluate the power of their investment that they can go and be, you know, something for someone like they worth me.
12:51
[SPEAKER_00]: That's beautiful.
12:52
[SPEAKER_00]: That's good, still.
12:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Is there a working title yet or can you not say it is a working title?
12:56
[SPEAKER_02]: I will say it.
12:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Am I changed right right right and it actually is a callback to the story I told on the podcast last year Mr. Jam and the dollar bill.
13:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember that?
13:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So the working title right now is a dollar's worth of impact.
13:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So you reach out the story.
13:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yes, I open up with that story.
13:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and then yeah.
13:14
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a, what was the hardest part to write?
13:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, my granddaddy's part.
13:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I just didn't have to talk about it.
13:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, absolutely.
13:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
13:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And my girlfriend, she read the book as well.
13:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And she cried when she was reading over that first bet section because I don't talk about it.
13:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this was a moment for me, really, to actually finally, okay, what was I feeling in the moment?
13:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And what am I feeling now?
13:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I get real fun, but I don't want to spoil too much of this, but yeah, I get really vulnerable about how it still impacts me to this day.
13:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, I love it.
13:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
13:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Dude, what that is awesome, man, and thank you.
13:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
13:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much.
13:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well, there's no a better place.
13:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd rather share.
13:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, look you got to use to do in this little like book tour You got to come back later place to launch it right here in front of the screen baby.
14:08
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I'm talking about man listen
14:12
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, when you talk about, you know, all that you've been able to do, especially with the organization with Faaba and all of that, talk about this idea of this new philanthropy that you feel like Atlanta needs, where did that concept come from?
14:29
[SPEAKER_01]: What does that look like from your perspective?
14:32
[SPEAKER_00]: absolutely well the whole thing about new philanthropy is about expanding the accessibility of impact for every day folks yeah and so i'm to tell you where that concept really came from uh last summer um Kevin who is our vice president of public relations and i
14:49
[SPEAKER_00]: We had an opportunity to go to a, yeah, he's opening the audience at the club.
14:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go
15:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And the same house got to give a quick shout out to Rodney Bullard.
15:20
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the president's CEO, the same house, an incredible person.
15:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Please look him up.
15:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And someone that I've had the privilege of knowing and just connecting with.
15:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he invited us to his event.
15:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we went.
15:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And their organization is very similar to what we do.
15:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Just on a different scale, a different audience, and things like that.
15:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we walked in, it was at the Hyde Museum in downtown in Midtown Atlanta, and we walked in, and it was a party.
15:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, just a great time.
15:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, great food.
15:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody from Atlanta was there.
15:53
[SPEAKER_00]: The mayor was there.
15:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it was just in an incredible time.
15:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
15:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we sit down and they go through this incredible presentation.
16:00
[SPEAKER_00]: T.I.
16:00
[SPEAKER_00]: and his daughter comes out and performs out and nowhere.
16:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
16:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, you know, all these corporations, they have a spokesperson there and they're talking about, you know, why is important to invest in organizations like the Boys and Girls Club and the Georgia Hispanic Chamber and all these incredible organizations.
16:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just remember when we left.
16:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, first, our favorite part of the night, me and Kowspewler, part of the night was the Chick-fil-A.
16:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, sorry.
16:27
[SPEAKER_00]: The president of the Chick-fil-A foundation, she came out and they had a live orchestra.
16:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And they played the Chick-fil-A thing.
16:34
[SPEAKER_01]: What?
16:34
[SPEAKER_02]: The orchestra played the Chick-fil-A thing.
16:36
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, really?
16:36
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a different time of money.
16:37
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a different time of money.
16:38
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a different time of money.
16:39
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a different time of money.
16:40
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a different time of money.
16:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And we were just like, man, this was incredible.
16:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we feel like we're a part of something spectacular.
16:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And in that moment, I just remember feeling as though the feeling, the joy, the hope that we felt in that moment shouldn't have just been only felt by us.
17:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it should be felt by everyday Georgians all across our state who may not have like the high donation benchmark to get into that door.
17:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the whole concept of new philanthropy really is about expanding impact for everyday folks.
17:16
[SPEAKER_00]: We like to call a little tagline, affordable impact, affordable impact.
17:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And so one of the initiatives that we're down to.
17:25
[SPEAKER_00]: It's copyrighted.
17:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
17:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't try to take down the time.
17:28
[SPEAKER_00]: You need the credit.
17:28
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
17:30
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right, and so one of our initiatives that coincides with that is called the 550 is the pin that we're in here today So it's a very simple initiative.
17:39
[SPEAKER_00]: We're challenging 50 folks to donate just $10 a month and with $10 a month That is more than enough to help us continue to invest in organizations all across metro at land at $10 a month with 50 people
17:52
[SPEAKER_00]: is $500 a month, $6,000 a year, and for the way that we run the organization, and we'll get more into that later in the interview, but we don't really have a high overhead, and so most of our funds go directly back into the community in the form of our community investments.
18:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, Bob of 50.
18:10
[SPEAKER_00]: How many people is 50 people?
18:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, 50 people.
18:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Give $10 a month.
18:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
18:14
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, right, here it is.
18:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Hold on, and I'll give you up there.
18:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll give you up there.
18:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So we launched this program on August 1st.
18:21
[SPEAKER_00]: In full transparency, I hadn't done anything to actually further it, right?
18:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And because I was like, OK, it's 50 people.
18:27
[SPEAKER_00]: We might get the 50th person on December the 31st.
18:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, Cat, it was like, man, you're tripping.
18:33
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to start at like asking people for money.
18:35
[SPEAKER_00]: and asking them to support.
18:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
18:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this last Friday is when I really started, you know, going down my network and asking folks to contribute and we're 33% the way they're already today.
18:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And so yeah, he was absolutely correct.
18:51
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, part of it for me and, you know, in the moment transparency about, you know, how I'm navigating being a youth nonprofit leader is believing in myself and not really and stop underestimating how people view me and how people trust me and things like that and so at first I've all naturally I've always been a little bit hesitant to ask folks for financial support and, you know, with a new organization and me being 22 and all this good stuff.
19:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I can be my worst enemy sometimes, and so yeah, from Friday to two day, I checked before we got here.
19:26
[SPEAKER_00]: We are at 36 percent correct.
19:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Well we're at 36 percent the way there.
19:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's about 32 days into this thing, right?
19:33
[SPEAKER_02]: 33 days, right?
19:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Technically, but really it's been about five days since we really, you know, actually start asking folks.
19:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so the website, if you're listed right now, watch it.
19:45
[SPEAKER_02]: For rent by Atlanta dot com and it's a dot work dot org.
19:50
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
19:51
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's F or two.
19:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So for Atlanta by Atlanta dot org.
19:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Is there a place to go to.
19:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
19:56
[SPEAKER_00]: It's on the website to the 50's all on the website.
19:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Click the support tab at the top.
20:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Click on five to 50 takes you right there.
20:03
[SPEAKER_00]: You can also find it in all of my social media bios.
20:06
[SPEAKER_00]: It takes you directly there.
20:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
20:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely great.
20:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's see if we can get that 50.
20:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm only I'm looking on the website right now and then and now and the clarify is for ATL by ATL so then you know okay you can't do it all the work the way it pulled up was the 4 ATL by ATL but you probably can do it all the way to do it.
20:25
[SPEAKER_01]: It could do it by the way.
20:26
[SPEAKER_02]: He's got both.
20:27
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what I'm saying.
20:28
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what I'm saying.
20:30
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what I'm talking about.
20:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's new philanthropy and you did job coin that term or is this something you came across?
20:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to say we can't do that because I don't remember, but I think we just understood that the way that philanthropy is happening right now.
20:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
20:50
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very, it's a template, you know, most nonprofit follow it.
20:53
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to big annual event every year.
20:55
[SPEAKER_00]: You charge like $200 a week.
20:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
20:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And I support it.
20:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I love organizations that do that.
21:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And we really want it to expand that kind of access and also bring our donors closer to the impact that they're making into our story.
21:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's the whole reason why we have started using the term new philanthropy.
21:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you said you mentioned that you'd be in 22 asking for money.
21:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes feels a little.
21:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
21:22
[SPEAKER_02]: You would have you like you got to prove yourself almost right like yeah, I want you to trust me, but I don't know Yeah, you put the age thing in there.
21:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I think most people who've met you immediately trust you for one But secondly, don't realize you're only 22 right like this guy's no way 22.
21:38
[SPEAKER_02]: He's done too much
21:43
[SPEAKER_00]: The end of this month.
21:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
21:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
21:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, it's really all around closing what we think is a philanthropic gap, which is the emptiness between when the donor gives money.
22:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they actually see the results of the donation that they're giving.
22:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I can use a perfect example, a hometown organization, the Tailament Foundation.
22:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Tailament.
22:18
[SPEAKER_00]: We love tailament.
22:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Nail Taylor.
22:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Nail Taylor.
22:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Incredible.
22:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
22:21
[SPEAKER_00]: They're director.
22:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Great organization and so they were one of the organizations that we had the privilege of supporting at the beginning of this year And so at the start of this year is well, actually at the end of last year we surprised them so none of the organizations we support know that we're supporting them
22:38
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so the way that we identify them is word of mouth.
22:43
[SPEAKER_00]: The way that I like to say it is if we go to a grandmother who lives on the house on the corner street, she should be able to say, you know, I know such and such they went through this organization.
22:52
[SPEAKER_00]: They had a great experience, right?
22:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And it really just to identify unsung organizations.
22:57
[SPEAKER_00]: That's our whole target group, right?
22:59
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to find those organizations.
23:01
[SPEAKER_00]: that are the diamonds in the rough, who are not always the first in line to getting support from traditional philanthropy.
23:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And so once we identified a corporate last year, we got them all on a big call, and they were all like, what is going on?
23:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what is this?
23:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And we surprised them, we told them, we're giving you all each grant at the time.
23:28
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, our grants were $300, $350, and $400, and the beautiful thing, because I know when folks hear that, they might think, oh, it's just $300, so that's not a lot of money.
23:39
[SPEAKER_00]: But the tailor-made foundation is going to prove to be a good example on how impactful that kind of money can be.
23:46
[SPEAKER_00]: and so we announced to them that we were giving them the money.
23:49
[SPEAKER_00]: We signed off on the checks and shipped them out in January.
23:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's the race part, right?
23:53
[SPEAKER_00]: The raising is we got all the money all last year, 22 individual donors trusted us when we had nothing to prove for, but just an idea.
24:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So shout out to those 22 donors.
24:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much.
24:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we invested it in January.
24:08
[SPEAKER_00]: and then the actual elevating and storytelling was done from around February and still ongoing right now.
24:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, I record a content to send out to our donors, to update them on the work that we're doing.
24:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So in case some point, Taylor made foundation, there is this incredible student, his name is Davia and he's a graduating, well he graduated in the class of
24:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, Davian, you know, he's a stellar kid, he's gone off to more house college as a freshman.
24:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's been with the Toilet Mate Foundation from his very inception.
24:41
[SPEAKER_00]: He loves talking to me about how it used to be in Mr. Nell's house.
24:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And he remembers being picked up by his parents there, you know, really humble beginnings.
24:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, because of the support that we were able to get from our donors, Faba was able to send Davian and four other students who were graduating from the Taylor May Foundation with all of the supplies that they needed for their dorm rooms.
25:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, microwave, many refrigerators, toiletries, school supplies.
25:08
[SPEAKER_00]: You name it, we gave it to them.
25:10
[SPEAKER_00]: That's also in May at their graduation.
25:13
[SPEAKER_00]: each of the seniors, they pull their cars up to the backup school, and we loaded it all up, so we were able to send them off to college.
25:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that kind of impact and that kind of impact is what we really share with all of our donors.
25:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So, through our storytelling efforts that Kevin leads, we make quick videos, we send it to him, we are constantly emailing them in their appropriate manner.
25:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm updating them about their donations and really just trying to make them feel connected because they are.
25:43
[SPEAKER_00]: We are a grassroots community foundation at our heart and at our core so everything with dollar counts.
25:48
[SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.
25:50
[SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.
25:51
[SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.
25:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, your work counts and traits on education access, permanent housing, sustainable employment.
26:01
[SPEAKER_01]: What is it about those three things that gives you, makes you want to focus there?
26:08
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26:19
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26:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Our team is here to provide the financial solutions that you need while supporting the people, businesses and organizations that make Newton County such a great place to live.
26:35
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26:48
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26:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't say we entirely focus on that.
27:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd say right now, that's where it's just the easiest to identify organizations that are making an impact.
27:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd say our focus is to support organizations start fighting poverty, and there's multiple avenues in which you can affect poverty.
27:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but for us, you know, the MWI workforce institute, they help folks in Douglas County get jobs.
27:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I can think of no more impactful way to stop someone from being, um, from experiencing, you know, the, the ravages of poverty and then helping them get a job.
27:33
[SPEAKER_00]: The Taylor May Foundation and East Illinois Kids Club, they provide after-school educational opportunities for kids that come from low background families, and so making sure that they have the resources to go to college and to succeed in the classroom.
27:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I can think of no better way to get ahead of fighting poverty.
27:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And so those three are just where our main focus is at right now.
27:58
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we found the organization and they did something that did not fall within those three categories.
28:05
[SPEAKER_00]: But they were trusted by the community.
28:07
[SPEAKER_00]: You could go talk to grandma on the corner and she would be able to tell you a personal testimony about them.
28:11
[SPEAKER_00]: We support them in a heartbeat.
28:13
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you find those organizations as well?
28:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, the three of us, we are a team, and so is myself, is Kevin, and then Mitchell Harris, and so we are all over the place, you know, I just talked about, you know, being at the Metro Land and Chamber of Commerce, working at the new and Chamber of Commerce, you get, you be surprised by the amount of incredible people who are just sitting at your table, and you know, what you can learn from someone and the kind of organizations that they lead,
28:44
[SPEAKER_00]: When, you know, you just asked them a very simple question, and so I met Ms. Angela O'Neill at the Metro Land in Chamber.
28:51
[SPEAKER_00]: She was just quiet old lady, and, you know, come to find out she's doing all this incredible work in Douglas County.
28:59
[SPEAKER_00]: She just doesn't tell anybody.
29:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, um,
29:02
[SPEAKER_00]: We really don't want to be another kind of funder that makes organizations feel out five pages of an application, you know, there's this concept, I didn't call in this one, I could tell you for sure, I didn't call in this one.
29:17
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's maternal philanthropy.
29:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
29:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And I saw this one clip where it was the president of Clark Atlanta University.
29:25
[SPEAKER_00]: He was talking about how McKinsey Scott, who is the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, who is very rich herself.
29:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And McKinsey Scott famously gives a lot of money to HBCUs.
29:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, the president of Clark was talking about how that experience goes and he says he is something he's never experienced before, you know, most of the time when you get money from organization, you got to check in every single month, you got to fill this box out, you got, so accountability measures, right, right, right, so you are wasting manpower on actually, you know, and I think actually given the organization back some more money, just because of the manpower that you have to use to, you know, follow their requirements
30:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said McKinsey Scott does it completely differently.
30:10
[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't ask for the money.
30:12
[SPEAKER_00]: She identified that we were a good candidate for her team did in quite a little bit research on our organization.
30:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And then one day I got the phone call.
30:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, I think you could use a couple of million dollars before would you accept it?
30:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think about that for me.
30:28
[SPEAKER_02]: I would be like, is this email from the great uncle and friends right here?
30:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I just don't think that's going to be right.
30:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was like, yeah, I think we can accept it.
30:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So all she asked them to do is to check in on like a quarterly basis.
30:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you need the money.
30:45
[SPEAKER_00]: What did you use it on?
30:47
[SPEAKER_00]: So just keep me updated on how you used the money.
30:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's the approach we take.
30:51
[SPEAKER_00]: We are not going after organizations that have million dollar budgets, 15 people on payroll.
30:56
[SPEAKER_00]: These are organizations that are led by non-profit leaders who most of them work another full-time job.
31:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we don't want to cause them the hassle of having to do the bureaucratic work of filling out monthly statements or poorly reports.
31:09
[SPEAKER_00]: We give them the money and then we meet with them on a recurring basis to talk about, okay, what did you use the money for it?
31:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And then also, critically, what could you, if we gave you more money, what could you have done?
31:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I wear it as a gap that we were not able to feel.
31:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we communicate the good to bad end ugly with our donors all the same.
31:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.
31:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So just a year of donations or however, it's not been a whole long time.
31:34
[SPEAKER_02]: These are the three groups so far, Taylor made, East Atlanta, Kids Club, and then MWMWI workforce development.
31:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And what, like, is there a total amount, because you did it so different.
31:44
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's not like, the amount's not going to like, people aren't going to go, Whoa, that's right.
31:48
[SPEAKER_00]: You want me to walk through the how that whole situation came to be.
31:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
31:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, last, so how far became to be, um, right, we raised the three folks that you see on our website, me, myself, Kevin, and Mitchell, we all worked together when I was S.J.
32:06
[SPEAKER_00]: President.
32:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, um, when I was S.J.
32:09
[SPEAKER_00]: President, we decided that we want to do something outside of the organization, um, the organization was a little, how they want to say this politely, um, on the organized.
32:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the organization, the organization, the organization, and so one avenue that we quickly identify as a way for us to continue to make impact without getting bogged down and whether they had gone on was fundraising.
32:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's when we decided to support the student emergency assistance fund.
32:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the university gave us a link and said, all right, have that, we do what, whatever you want, right?
32:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And so at the end of that campaign, we ended up bringing in over $15,000 to support the fund, right?
32:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And so after that, we were like,
32:54
[SPEAKER_00]: this is great like we made an impact.
32:57
[SPEAKER_00]: We are actually supporting folks here at our school who desperately need to support and we felt good doing it.
33:04
[SPEAKER_00]: We felt like we were part of something bigger than ourselves.
33:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And so fast forward I'm working at the chamber.
33:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a conversation with one of our external stakeholders that does work in the on the shelter population at work.
33:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And one thing leads to another and she's talking to me about this concept of toxic charity where it was basically like, oh, well, I'm glad y'all know it, but for the book is great book.
33:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And but the just of it is, you know, it's like the old ad as you give a manifest, you only use for a day, you teach a manifest, you use for the rest of his life.
33:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we have in the great conversation about that, and I asked her, well, if you were talking to someone who is my age and they want to support or make it impact in their community,
33:45
[SPEAKER_00]: how would you ask or inspire them and encourage them to be involved?
33:50
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, well, that's easy.
33:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell them to donate their time or their money.
33:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And so a light bulb went off in my room.
33:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, we're going to make a organization that's going to help folks donate their time and their money.
34:02
[SPEAKER_00]: We launched publicly last January as you both remember.
34:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And we struggled.
34:08
[SPEAKER_00]: That would be a completely transparent.
34:09
[SPEAKER_00]: We struggled.
34:11
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we were these bright-eye bushy-tail kids.
34:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, we're those six poverty.
34:15
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to eradicate this.
34:16
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to do that.
34:17
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to do that.
34:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And then February came around.
34:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I don't know.
34:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
34:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
34:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait a minute.
34:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Pumped a break.
34:26
[SPEAKER_00]: No, what is this going on here?
34:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
34:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And well, not last year.
34:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
34:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Last year you were in 2024.
34:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
34:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this year's going to really fast.
34:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
34:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And so January, 2014, we launched the February, we like, wait a minute, what's going on?
34:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would be honest, I even when I came on the the podcast because that was around March.
34:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't already made the decision to give up on Faba.
34:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, okay, we're just going to stop talking about this and hopefully people will forget.
34:57
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll fit it off and let it be die off peacefully in the wind and I was at Tidalis' shop and it was the first day.
35:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if we're good and I'm sitting
35:09
[SPEAKER_00]: at the head of the table.
35:10
[SPEAKER_00]: We're doing introductions.
35:11
[SPEAKER_00]: It's nine of the kids in part of the program.
35:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know anybody in this room and I'm expecting nobody knows anything about me.
35:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're going around.
35:18
[SPEAKER_00]: We're doing introductions.
35:18
[SPEAKER_00]: They get to me and I talk about everything.
35:21
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't mention nothing about it.
35:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing.
35:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And the guy next to me, his name is Marco.
35:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Once I finished my remarks, he's like, you didn't say nothing about Faba.
35:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, how did you know about Faba, right?
35:35
[SPEAKER_00]: How did you know about that?
35:37
[SPEAKER_00]: The story goes with me and Marco, we become great friends.
35:40
[SPEAKER_00]: He's on our board for Faba now.
35:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And he told me a couple of weeks ago.
35:45
[SPEAKER_00]: He was like, you know, before the first day, I looked up everybody who's in the program.
35:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And I saw like all the things that you're doing that's how I learned about Faba and so before you came into the room I put our name tags next to each other so that I could talk to you Okay, get to know you a little bit more and so that I took that as a sign when he said it At the time I took as a sign.
36:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, don't get this this is maybe God trying to talk to me.
36:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, and so I call a cat or Marco
36:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, or Mark, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the way, are you the
36:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we fund, that's where our model raise, invest, and elevate.
36:42
[SPEAKER_00]: There's anything we knew we could do.
36:44
[SPEAKER_00]: We could raise money.
36:44
[SPEAKER_00]: We did when I was S.J.
36:45
[SPEAKER_00]: President.
36:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And so less invest in the organizations that are making an impact.
36:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And then let's tell their stories.
36:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we actually started our first fundraising campaign on October 1st.
36:59
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a very short campaign.
37:00
[SPEAKER_00]: It was October 1st to December 1st, I believe.
37:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And during that campaign, we raised $6,400 every day on average $102 from 22 individual donors.
37:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And we won a grant, a major gift, $5,000 from the Lookout Foundation, which is an organization committed to addressing some of the racial inequities happening in the country.
37:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So they support organizations in Georgia and North Carolina primarily.
37:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when we raised that amount of money then we were faced with a new question what do we do right right you like this is our first time you know handling this amount of money on our own like you know Which or just say we raised it we gave them we don't know what they did with it right we are actually responsible for it So how are we going to make sure we're good stewards of it
37:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's when we decided, you know what, let's not buy it off too much and what we can do.
37:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's invest a thousand dollars this year.
37:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's work out the King's.
38:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's only find three organizations.
38:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's and let's actually go through an investment cycle and figure out and learn a new muscle really on how to do it.
38:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we kept a portion of it to be used for this year as a launching point.
38:13
[SPEAKER_00]: We used another portion of it to invest in what I like to call it the cost of doing business.
38:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm still in that from Greg Herring.
38:20
[SPEAKER_00]: He likes to say we also do a business.
38:22
[SPEAKER_00]: There's always a cost.
38:23
[SPEAKER_00]: There's always a cost.
38:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And then a thousand dollars if that was used to give our initial grants.
38:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's where the $300 for excellent kits club.
38:33
[SPEAKER_00]: $350 for telomene and $400 for and WR workforce institute comes from.
38:36
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all, yeah.
38:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Man, and so now you were gifted that that money, you were, you were responsible with it.
38:42
[SPEAKER_02]: There's like, what, what's the accountability measure for you guys though, right?
38:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, if there is in non-profits, I mean, you have to have something, right?
38:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I've got to, you got a board, you say.
38:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
38:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
38:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
38:52
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a board of directors.
38:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, there are five folks on our board.
38:56
[SPEAKER_00]: They represent I made my mission to make sure that our board reflected the diversity of the communities we were impacting and so we have five spectacular folks who asked them and the hardest questions.
39:09
[SPEAKER_00]: in the world.
39:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Our support members.
39:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
39:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Good for members, right?
39:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
39:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're all on our website.
39:14
[SPEAKER_00]: You can see them.
39:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And their LinkedIn information is all on our website.
39:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Our chairman is a good friend of mine.
39:21
[SPEAKER_00]: His name is Tyler McCoy.
39:22
[SPEAKER_00]: He is a former SJ president, so that's how we get to know each other.
39:27
[SPEAKER_00]: He was kind of like my big brother when I was essay president.
39:30
[SPEAKER_00]: He was president at the University of West Georgia Just a smart guy and so we meet and update our board every quarter I talk with Tyler every single month and they as you can assume ask a lot of questions that we Try to provide the best the best answers with but yeah, they really do help us
39:52
[SPEAKER_00]: remain accountable.
39:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And then also, and this might sound a lot cheesy, but we're really accountable with ourselves as well.
39:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I really take, you know, the fact that people trust me with their money very seriously, even the day, when I was leaving the
40:07
[SPEAKER_00]: um, chamber, uh, coffee call.
40:10
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom called me and, like, every black mother, she was like, where are you going?
40:15
[SPEAKER_00]: You have my location.
40:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Why are you asking me where I'm going?
40:18
[SPEAKER_00]: But, and then, um, my mom, she works at Walmart and, uh, you know, we've been raising money through the 5 to 50.
40:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And so she's been, you know, bragging about it with all of her friends at work.
40:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And so one of her co-workers don't need it last night and I got an notification.
40:33
[SPEAKER_00]: So I told her, you know,
40:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Such and such don't need it to the organization.
40:37
[SPEAKER_00]: She was like, oh, okay, that's great.
40:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so happy and you know I'm glad that they're supporting I've been talking about it and there's another person who supported as well.
40:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I said I only got one notification though
40:50
[SPEAKER_00]: she said well you know her name is missed our scene and you know you know where you talk to her and everything but uh she sent money and so she said she didn't want to go over she didn't want to use you know the technology she wanted to put her
41:05
[SPEAKER_00]: card on file and everything.
41:06
[SPEAKER_00]: She wanted to hand you the cash.
41:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And so sure enough, when I got home the day, it was a $20 bill.
41:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's the other thing.
41:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So she was like, yeah, and she sent you $20.
41:16
[SPEAKER_00]: She prepaid two months.
41:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So as she's going to plan on sending me $10 every single month after that.
41:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm like,
41:26
[SPEAKER_00]: That is remarkable for me because it's like, I don't know what she did to get that 20 dollars.
41:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that's her last 20 or whatever, but for her to trust me with that kind of responsibility, like I do not take that lightly at all.
41:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And we, none of us at the organization take that lightly.
41:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that didn't sound cheesy to me.
41:47
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't sound cheesy at all, man.
41:49
[SPEAKER_01]: That sounds like impact to the highest order.
41:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And I guess you talked about how you struggled a bit in the beginning.
41:59
[SPEAKER_01]: What was that struggle like?
42:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Was it based on people looking at your guys, like, who are these kids?
42:06
[SPEAKER_01]: How can we trust them?
42:07
[SPEAKER_01]: But if they talk about it, they're going to steal my money.
42:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what was the skepticism?
42:12
[SPEAKER_01]: What was it?
42:14
[SPEAKER_01]: That was the biggest challenge.
42:15
[SPEAKER_00]: was mainly internal because when you look at each of our resumes, like we are really experienced in doing things at a very young age and turning any kind of skepticism into trust.
42:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that was our whole thing when I was president, that was my whole thing when I was at Mac, Kevin's a leader of what was a leader when he was still in school, of student organizations, Mitchell was working as a student in organizations doing fundraising work.
42:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And so
42:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I think for me, personally, it was just, I was my biggest hater, you know, why would they want to support you?
42:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
42:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would, and coming up with every single excuse?
42:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, of course, they support you when you was at Georgia State.
42:54
[SPEAKER_00]: You had Georgia State behind you, and I've had to,
42:58
[SPEAKER_00]: really go through the process of unlearning imposter syndrome and really come into to understand that, you know, I've got to be my biggest cheerleader and it's not about being can see that it's just about being confident in my ability and the value that I bring to everyone that I walk into.
43:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
43:18
[SPEAKER_02]: That's great because, and I'm not here to inflate your ego anymore than that.
43:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, my family makes sure that I just might have to say that.
43:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I promise you.
43:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I promise.
43:27
[SPEAKER_02]: But what I think, like, if I could speak on behalf of all the other folks out there that are my age or the Greg Herings or the Josh Harts of the world, I mean, there's a huge belief in you and what you guys are doing.
43:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Like a huge belief.
43:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And maybe it's because you've been there, like you've been in the rooms, you've been in the places at a time where like, why would you, like, you were even saying like, why 20 years old 18 years 19 years while I'm at sitting at stable with these people.
43:56
[SPEAKER_02]: I can just tell you that there's such an incredible amount of belief.
44:03
[SPEAKER_02]: in you who you are, but also in that means whatever you touch, like if if that's, if you're going to do phob, then you're going to have a group of people going, man, let's do it, like rolling arms, like how do we, how do we be part of the, you know, the phob of 50?
44:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
44:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you say, well, I'm on run for a higher office one day, yeah, I don't know you didn't say it, but there are plenty of people who are, right, who are saying, hey, man, I'd support you in that, right?
44:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I'm just saying that there is a belief in you.
44:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And if, if I could pinpoint until you
44:32
[SPEAKER_02]: It'd be, we could maybe bottle it up and hand it off and put, you know, sell it to everybody, right?
44:37
[SPEAKER_02]: But you've got something.
44:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's the it factor or just the humility or the confidence even in yourself that does not then become arrogance in, you know, who you are.
44:48
[SPEAKER_02]: There's just something about you, man, like that's like, we know you're a world changer.
44:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And I've had the opportunity to actually hear him speak, though, like it.
44:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Board meetings where you come up for public comment and just,
44:59
[SPEAKER_02]: come prepared and make a make an incredible case with passion that our whole board didn't have to go.
45:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, kind of think about that.
45:06
[SPEAKER_02]: That's pretty good.
45:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you can't dismiss it, that was well done and it hasn't been just one time, right?
45:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you've, you've, you've, you've, you've, you've, you've.
45:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And really that's for like I'm in Flanier, you go, but you've just shown a pattern of consistency in excellence and and excellence and then in ethics.
45:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, man, I'm I'm grateful for you.
45:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And I can't wait to see what happens with father, what I'll what also happens with Xavier on journal and shepherd.
45:33
[SPEAKER_01]: that's right now you love you loved on that government name and then what to do that I just learned oh yeah man yeah you know say your your your past is interesting runs you from Newton high in Covington in this East Metro Atlanta area all the way
45:49
[SPEAKER_01]: up to Atlanta proper and everything there, you know, has that path and you're upbringing in this community shaped the way that you approach what you do in the big city and everything beyond this community.
46:04
[SPEAKER_01]: As an incredible question.
46:07
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a story that I've come to love.
46:11
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about this group of people in East Africa that call them the side people.
46:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And do you know about the miscipes?
46:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard of them before, yes.
46:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard a couple of you preach the story.
46:22
[SPEAKER_00]: But the miscipes, they were historically renowned for the kind of society that they had.
46:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, they were tri... they're still in around their tribe of folks in East Africa.
46:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And historians just loved them for the way that they organized their society, they had the best hunters and gatherers.
46:39
[SPEAKER_00]: They had the best warriors.
46:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And the way that they would greet each other is quite different than how we greet each other here.
46:50
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I walked in, I saw y'all say, hey, what's up?
46:52
[SPEAKER_00]: It's good to see y'all.
46:53
[SPEAKER_00]: How are you?
46:54
[SPEAKER_00]: The Messiah people, when they agree on another, they ask each other a question, and it's and how are the children?
47:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And how are the children?
47:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason why that story really connects with me and why it is so profound is because it really encapsulates the connection between how strong a community is and the outcomes that it produces for its kids.
47:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And as much as I would love to say that that value, that underlying value in this story was first put forth to me because I read about them as high people.
47:30
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really because I learned to hear a new county.
47:32
[SPEAKER_00]: We have just an ingrained value for how our kids are doing and connecting it to the strength of our community in the long term and in the long run.
47:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And so with every decision that I make, whether it's working on the downtime, re-measure project, that Mac, even the work I'm doing right now, full-time at Georgia State.
47:51
[SPEAKER_00]: In the back of my mind, I'm always asking myself, and how are the children?
47:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
47:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Are the actions that I make in the decisions that I'm proposing?
47:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Are they going to be good for the kids who are in pre-K right now?
48:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Are we creating a community?
48:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And am I doing my best, even with the organizations that we're supporting?
48:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I think our biggest barometer of success is not going to be seen today.
48:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully it'll be seen 20 years from now when the scientists who cure cancer can say, I went through the Taylor May Foundation program and they helped me go to college and I was able to focus on my grades and they'll have no clue who I am or who Kevin is, who Mitch is, but we will know you know, we help the Taylor May Foundation expand their programming and to include that kind of a kid.
48:33
[SPEAKER_00]: who went on the change the world and so the biggest way that my community has influenced me is to really put things into perspective as relates to what my purpose is and what I'm supposed to be doing.
48:45
[SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome.
48:46
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you when you so you're in Atlanta doing these things and you have this this great foundation here?
48:53
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you not get lost?
48:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Like how do you wind up the SGA
49:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether you're opening your first check in account and buying a home, growing a business or planning for the future, you deserve a bank that knows you by name and is invested in the community you call home.
49:12
[SPEAKER_02]: At United Bank in Covington Local Decisions, Personal Service and Lasting Relationships have been at the heart of what we do for generations.
49:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Our team is here to provide the financial solutions that you need while supporting the people, businesses, and organizations that make Newton County such a great place to live.
49:28
[SPEAKER_01]: So stop by our coming to the office or visit accessunited.com to learn more about everything United Bank has to offer United Bank.
49:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Your community bank today tomorrow and wherever life takes you.
49:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Member FDSC equal housing lender in MLS number 4130-54.
49:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked myself that.
49:53
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's not a tiny school man.
49:55
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a tiny school.
49:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not so tiny city.
49:59
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
50:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, how do you not get lost in the ATO?
50:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I don't want to be lost in ATO, but it's great, you know, I love Atlanta.
50:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I know a lot of great folks in Atlanta.
50:10
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I got some scary parts as well to don't get lost in it.
50:14
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, when I was so gone back to my, um, my high school year, um, I gave a speech at our graduation with him and, um, after the speech,
50:26
[SPEAKER_00]: there were just so many people strangers who came up to me and they just said in some way shape or form, don't forget about us when you make it big, don't forget about us when you make it big.
50:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think it would be the most disrespectful thing for me to do to learn everything that I have from my hometown and to just take it and use it in Atlanta.
50:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they have enough.
50:48
[SPEAKER_00]: There is not a brain drain in Atlanta.
50:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I know to me and my friends who don't want to come home
50:55
[SPEAKER_00]: There's not enough opportunities, they've heard someone tell them if you want to make it big, you got to go to Atlanta or New York or Houston or whatever.
51:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just don't buy it.
51:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I really do believe, okay, you can have a career, you can make the money in Atlanta.
51:08
[SPEAKER_00]: But then you can still come back home and make sure that you're making it impact here.
51:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And the beautiful thing is, you know,
51:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything really is kind of connected for me, even with Faba, we are a Metro region organization, and so we cover the 29 Metro Atlantic counties, and so from Cummings, Georgia, all the way down to Jackson, Georgia.
51:31
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's an organization making an impact and we catch wind of it, we are going to support it.
51:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, but yeah, just on the bigger point of how I don't get lost in a while, I don't want to get lost in a while.
51:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And I like, I like home.
51:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
51:45
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a good thing.
51:46
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a good thing to be from here.
51:48
[SPEAKER_01]: To like here, to be able to be successful in other places and still have that string that keeps you, keeps you connected.
51:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I think sometimes it's rare, so it's good to hear, it's good to hear.
52:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen then, somebody's watching the day, they want to know how in the world this sounds amazing.
52:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It sounds too good to be true, oh my gosh, how can they get involved with Fort Lanna by Atlanta, how can they donate, how can they...
52:17
[SPEAKER_00]: following it like just what what can they do how can they get a part get to be a part of it absolutely so i recently went through because i'm on the board of another organization and you can say that the new education found there we go let me get a little bit more we all both of them both of those yes and we have our laboratory last week what's the last week it was not anything to be there last week
52:43
[SPEAKER_00]: It was so great, and so we walked in and didn't have an agenda what we were going to be talking about and then Gale who's the executive director She was like, all right, we're going to talk about the two things.
52:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll don't want to talk about fundraising and Rejection and everybody in the room.
52:57
[SPEAKER_00]: You can hear about all right.
52:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Here we go.
53:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the retreat right
53:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I got to tell you, the most informative thing I've ever experienced in terms of fundraising and nonprofit governance.
53:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And she really broke down and deconstructed what fundraising really is all about and I've adopted it with Faba.
53:17
[SPEAKER_00]: She says, you know, the Marion Webster definition of fundraising is, you know, you're asking somebody from money or for a resource to push your initiative for it.
53:29
[SPEAKER_00]: you personally are experiencing something amazing and you are inviting a friend to be a part of it.
53:34
[SPEAKER_00]: However, they can.
53:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we do not fundraise in the stereotypical way.
53:38
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't ask people for money.
53:40
[SPEAKER_00]: We are sharing the work that we're doing and inviting them to contribute and to be a part and experience.
53:46
[SPEAKER_00]: The kind of joy and the hope that we feel because we we love the word that we do right now I'm not getting a paycheck out of this right I really love waking up every day and knowing that you know We are supporting organizations all across the region and so I want to spread that joy and that hope with as many people as I can And so you know support doesn't have to look like writing a check as though it is appreciated
54:10
[SPEAKER_00]: But support can look a number of ways.
54:13
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to share your testimony.
54:14
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to get us connected with the organization that you think deserves to be recognized and supported.
54:21
[SPEAKER_00]: We are in our fundraising phase right now, right?
54:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And in anticipation of giving out some more grants at the start of our year, launching our second season, hopefully with some bigger grants in some more opportunities for some organizations.
54:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Support looks a number of ways, but if you want to get in contact, you can call me 6, 7, 8, 9, 2, 5, 1, 4, 3, 1.
54:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm on Instagram at the underscore Xavier, ZAY, the IO in Animal Facebook for all my aunts and aunts of a particular age.
54:53
[SPEAKER_00]: So there is no excuse for you not to be able to get in contact with me, and I pick up every single phone call I get.
55:01
[SPEAKER_00]: awesome stuff.
55:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's about how to get involved with whatever Zavians doing, but if you wanted to join the 50, 50, that's the I'll say it because you share in the information, you've shared the stories, life-changing stories.
55:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it's 4ATL by ATL.org.
55:18
[SPEAKER_02]: You can sign up to be part of the 50 file, but in apparently you can
55:22
[SPEAKER_02]: bring $10 a month.
55:23
[SPEAKER_02]: They've hinted.
55:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and so and so everyone who joins the 5-50 gets this commemorative.
55:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I want that.
55:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm on the way.
55:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm on the way.
55:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So we give and it's going to be a tradition and so every year we're going to find a way to thank you know folks who are able to give that $10 a month.
55:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I love this great.
55:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
55:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So when does the campaign for Senator begin?
55:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going to don't do that.
55:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't do that.
55:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't do that.
55:47
[SPEAKER_01]: This was a great episode, man.
55:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't do that.
55:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't do that.
55:51
[SPEAKER_01]: What the politics.
55:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at the news today.
55:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want that problem.
55:55
[SPEAKER_00]: That's true.
55:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
55:56
[SPEAKER_02]: I wouldn't want to be that.
55:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Stick with helping folks.
55:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if you're going to do it right here, man.
56:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, indeed.
56:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, good stuff, man.
56:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Good stuff.
56:03
[SPEAKER_01]: We always appreciate you stopping by this way.
56:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And, man, the things that you're doing and that God has you involved in amazing.
56:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.
56:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Just keep it going, man.
56:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Keep it up and keep it real.
56:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And next year, when the book drops, we'll make sure to get you back on the podcast.
56:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll have my commitment.
56:20
[SPEAKER_01]: The first stop will be here.
56:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, that's what I'm talking about.
56:23
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I'm talking about.
56:24
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what that's not forgetting.
56:26
[SPEAKER_01]: the little people when you get big.
56:27
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right, that's right, that's right.
56:28
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you saying?
56:29
[SPEAKER_01]: That's absolutely true.
56:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thanks man for being here.
56:31
[SPEAKER_02]: We love you to death.
56:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Can't wait to see what happens next.
56:33
[SPEAKER_02]: So thanks.
56:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
56:35
[SPEAKER_02]: I love y'all.
56:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.