Latest / Unstoppable Success Podcast / How to Scale Your Business Faster with Global Talent & Nearshoring | Brian Samson on CEO Growth Strategy

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How to Scale Your Business Faster with Global Talent & Nearshoring | Brian Samson on CEO Growth Strategy · Unstoppable Success Podcast

• 0:02
  Jaclyn Strominger: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another amazing episode of Unstoppable Success, the podcast where we hear from amazing leaders and influential professionals who are doing the work to have unstoppable success.
• 0:13
  Jaclyn Strominger: I'm your host, Jaclyn Strominger, and I cannot wait to introduce you to our next guest.
• 0:19
  Jaclyn Strominger: So today we are joined by Brian Sampson.
• 0:22
  Jaclyn Strominger: He is a global operator and investor who has spent over a decade building, high-performing teams across Latin America and the US, from raising 2 million as a founder and scaling to 80 team members to leading talent at multiple VC back companies.
• 0:38
  Jaclyn Strominger: Brian has been at the forefront of growth where it matters most, people.
• 0:42
  Jaclyn Strominger: And he deals with a lot with people today in lots of different capacities.
• 0:47
  Jaclyn Strominger: And we'll get into that too.
• 0:48
  Jaclyn Strominger: But he's leading his leadership roles at Lending Club Free IPO, have been part of the executive team at Sash, later acquired by Postmits and then ultimately Uber.
• 0:58
  Jaclyn Strominger: And today is a general partner at Hang 10 Capital and his mission connecting world-class talent across the Americas with hyper-growth US companies.
• 1:07
  Jaclyn Strominger: Brian, welcome to the show.
• 1:10
  Brian Samson: I am honored to be here.
• 1:11
  Brian Samson: Thank you so much.
• 1:13
  Jaclyn Strominger: I am so excited to have you because let's talk actually about talent and near shoring.
• 1:20
  Jaclyn Strominger: Because to have unstoppable success, one of the things that I believe we all need to be able to do is delegate.
• 1:28
  Brian Samson: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:33
  Jaclyn Strominger: And delegation to the right people at the right cost.
• 1:38
  Brian Samson: Yeah.
• 1:39
  Jaclyn Strominger: It's hard for somebody who might not be generating the right income yet.
• 1:43
  Brian Samson: Yeah.
• 1:43
  Brian Samson: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:46
  Brian Samson: Great place to start.
• 1:47
  Brian Samson: I remember the very first time that I offshored something.
• 1:53
  Jaclyn Strominger: Okay.
• 1:54
  Brian Samson: So I was doing, yeah, I was like a head of recruiting for a San Francisco tech startup.
• 2:00
  Brian Samson: And sourcing and list building, you know, is it's tedious, it takes a long time, especially for technical talent, because you've got to really read through these resumes and make sure that they've got this particular skill set.
• 2:17
  Brian Samson: So I went to Upwork, uh, which is a great place to start.
• 2:22
  Brian Samson: It was a great place to start 15 years ago, and it's still a great place to start, just like platforms like Fiverr, and found somebody in the Philippines, and I went through all the steps you should probably do of figuring out my budget, which wasn't a lot.
• 2:41
  Brian Samson: So I think it was like I was looking for eight dollars an hour, maybe, which at the time I think was maybe even above market for somebody to do that, and took them through a couple exercises so I could see my short list of candidates, how they did it, how they took instruction.
• 3:01
  Brian Samson: And the first one was just like striking gold, you know.
• 3:06
  Brian Samson: They they were built basically building these great lists for me that were ready.
• 3:12
  Brian Samson: They found all the email addresses, which was so hard to do.
• 3:15
  Brian Samson: It's 2026 today, so there's AI for that, but in 2011, 2012, it it really wasn't.
• 3:23
  Brian Samson: So offshoring was like AI before AI, you know, got there.
• 3:28
  Jaclyn Strominger: Right, right, right.
• 3:29
  Brian Samson: Um, I will say, like the second person I hired was kind of a disaster, the third one was pretty good, the fourth one was better.
• 3:37
  Brian Samson: So, you know, you kind of take your lumps, but it was just like like ultimate leverage, and I just remember how much time was freed up for me, you know, where I could do all these events, I could have more conversations with hiring managers and leaders in the business, I could spend more time on strategy and immigration and compensation instead of kind of being sucked into this world of um research, right?
• 4:08
  Brian Samson: Yeah, so highly recommend it.
• 4:10
  Brian Samson: And again, there's some really low-cost platforms out there that can give you that leverage.
• 4:16
  Jaclyn Strominger: Right.
• 4:17
  Jaclyn Strominger: So talk to me.
• 4:19
  Jaclyn Strominger: I mean, so do you now use still use Fiverr or Upwork, but or you've created your own platform now to help people find yeah.
• 4:33
  Brian Samson: So I think for companies that are like into that second gear, that's where I've existed.
• 4:42
  Brian Samson: For the last 11 years, I've been doing near shoring.
• 4:46
  Brian Samson: So for those that don't, you know, know all the um the definitions of that, because near shoring is not as commonly known as offshore, right?
• 4:54
  Brian Samson: But offshoring almost everybody's heard of, and there's really three big countries that illustrate it there's China, India, and the Philippines, and they each have their focus.
• 5:04
  Brian Samson: China is really the the manufacturing offshore center for the world.
• 5:10
  Brian Samson: Look at your office, at your home.
• 5:12
  Brian Samson: A lot of things were made in a factory in China, right?
• 5:15
  Jaclyn Strominger: Right.
• 5:15
  Jaclyn Strominger: The chair you're sitting on, right?
• 5:18
  Brian Samson: Probably, yeah.
• 5:19
  Brian Samson: You look at India has been the IT offshoring center for forever.
• 5:24
  Brian Samson: I mean, they graduate more software engineers every year than some countries that people.
• 5:30
  Brian Samson: I mean, it's just it's just insane.
• 5:32
  Brian Samson: And then the Philippines have really established themselves as the back office, call center, virtual assistants, reach researchers, medical billers, things like that.
• 5:44
  Brian Samson: And Asia has always come out on top when it comes to price.
• 5:49
  Brian Samson: But there's a problem with Asia if you're coming from a US perspective.
• 5:54
  Brian Samson: You've got this giant ocean in between the US and Asia, and that means time zone is rough.
• 6:02
  Brian Samson: If you've ever offshored something, you're probably making a sacrifice one way or the other.
• 6:09
  Brian Samson: And there's a couple different sacrifices that people are making.
• 6:12
  Brian Samson: They're either up at ungodly hours to try to match their team, or their team is up at ungodly hours to match them, or you know, they've given instructions, flipped it over the wall, and they're kind of crossing their fingers that the the team on the other side of the world understood it.
• 6:33
  Brian Samson: They've got all the directions, it's all clear.
• 6:36
  Brian Samson: We know that doesn't always happen.
• 6:38
  Brian Samson: So you might come back, and that's not quite what I wanted.
• 6:43
  Brian Samson: You send new instructions the next day, you're kind of hoping, so a lot of give it gets missed.
• 6:49
  Brian Samson: And then, you know, someone I talked to the other day shared this experience that I don't talk about a lot, but I think other people might have.
• 6:57
  Brian Samson: Is so he works with a team in Asia, but he happens to be a morning energy person.
• 7:06
  Brian Samson: So when he wakes up, and and I could relate to this because I think I'm the same way.
• 7:10
  Brian Samson: When I wake up, this is when I do my best deep thinking work, you know, like my brain is sharp and strong, and uh, I've got a good night rest right behind me.
• 7:21
  Brian Samson: And this is how he normally worked, but now he has this team in China and the Philippines, and he has to like totally restructure his day so his morning maps with them, so it's just kind of back and forth email, you know, you get right into the right into it, but then by the time the afternoon rolls around, he's mentally tired, he doesn't have to do these conversations anymore, but he's mentally exhausted, and now he's supposed to do his deep his deep strategy work and deep thinking.
• 7:56
  Brian Samson: So there's a trade-off, you know, and I don't think everybody understands this trade-off you're making when you're offshoring.
• 8:03
  Brian Samson: And your shoring for the US is Latin America, and this is where this time zone kind of mitigates everything we just talked about.
• 8:13
  Brian Samson: You can get real-time answers, jump on a zoom call right away because everyone's on your on your same time zone.
• 8:21
  Brian Samson: WhatsApp, text, Slack, everyone is right there, and it's this full collaboration.
• 8:27
  Brian Samson: You send over instructions, five minutes later, they're like, Hey Jaclyn, I don't I don't quite understand this.
• 8:34
  Brian Samson: You just talk it through, and then you're you're you're working the same workday overlap.
• 8:39
  Brian Samson: Now, is Latin America a little bit more expensive than Asia?
• 8:42
  Brian Samson: It is, but a little bit, not but not a lot.
• 8:46
  Brian Samson: So that's where there's this arbitrage of great quality, full workday collaboration with just a little bit of cost increase over Asia.
• 8:59
  Brian Samson: And that's what we built.
• 9:01
  Brian Samson: So 11 years of working within Latin America.
• 9:05
  Brian Samson: I even lived in Argentina and learned a lot about how to align it and make sure the labor, the right labor is connected to the right companies and the right entrepreneurs.
• 9:17
  Jaclyn Strominger: Okay, so I want to talk to you about this because I find this truly fascinating.
• 9:20
  Jaclyn Strominger: As somebody who does have a VA, I love my VA.
• 9:23
  Jaclyn Strominger: He does a lot of my social media posts, but there are things that I would love to, like I'm thinking about that I literally have been thinking about now.
• 9:29
  Jaclyn Strominger: Like I want to do other have somebody do other tasks, right?
• 9:35
  Jaclyn Strominger: So what is is Latin America known for specific things?
• 9:43
  Brian Samson: Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:44
  Jaclyn Strominger: I'm pointing my fingers like I'm going around the world.
• 9:48
  Brian Samson: I'm I'm right there with I can I could see the glow of the imaginary glove.
• 9:53
  Brian Samson: I'm right there with for those that are listening, just listen to the audio on the internet.
• 9:57
  Jaclyn Strominger: Right now, I'm I'm pointing my finger around the world.
• 10:00
  Brian Samson: They might be a little lost, but totally with you, Jaclyn.
• 10:03
  Brian Samson: I know exactly where you're going.
• 10:05
  Brian Samson: Now, Latin America is several countries, right?
• 10:09
  Brian Samson: So there's Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and so forth, so on and so forth.
• 10:15
  Brian Samson: And they each kind of have their specialties.
• 10:17
  Jaclyn Strominger: Okay.
• 10:18
  Brian Samson: Mexico, I think there's there's a couple things that are really interesting about it.
• 10:23
  Brian Samson: You know, regardless of where you are in the political fence, politics matters when it comes to where work is done.
• 10:32
  Brian Samson: And right now, China and even India, they're kind of in the doghouse with this administration, but work still needs to get done.
• 10:42
  Brian Samson: So a lot of that has moved to Latin America, and Mexico is really benefiting, especially on the manufacturing side.
• 10:50
  Brian Samson: So there's a lot of auto plants.
• 10:52
  Brian Samson: Recently, I took a flight from San Francisco, California to Monterey, Mexico, and almost the entire flight was Korean auto executives because they're doing a lot of you know uh unknown.
• 11:08
  Jaclyn Strominger: Okay.
• 11:09
  Brian Samson: Yeah, they're all in Monterey.
• 11:11
  Jaclyn Strominger: So you land there and it's just Monterey, Mexico, not Monterey, California.
• 11:14
  Jaclyn Strominger: Just making sure we understand that.
• 11:15
  Jaclyn Strominger: They're not all at Pebble Beach.
• 11:18
  Brian Samson: That's right, that's right.
• 11:19
  Brian Samson: Yeah, I haven't seen that many auto plants at Pebble Beach, but beautiful place, otherwise.
• 11:24
  Brian Samson: So yeah, you just have the sea of auto plants, you know, Toyota, wherever.
• 11:30
  Brian Samson: And then Mexico also, um, there's over 100 million people there.
• 11:35
  Brian Samson: They've got a really famous technical university, the technical university of Monterey.
• 11:40
  Brian Samson: Uh, Mexico City is a mega city, Guadalajara is their version of Silicon Valley.
• 11:46
  Brian Samson: So there's a lot of great technical talent as well as manufacturing.
• 11:52
  Brian Samson: Argentina has been the victim of really bad government for decades and decades and decades.
• 12:01
  Brian Samson: What people might not know is right before World War II, Argentina was one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
• 12:08
  Brian Samson: And if you've ever been to Buenos Aires, it looks like Paris.
• 12:12
  Brian Samson: It's this you know, beautiful architecture, tree-lined streets, but a ton of government mismanagement.
• 12:20
  Brian Samson: So that's like there's a movie involved, just so what's that what that has actually meant for people is for them to come out ahead economically, they've had to learn US style English and learn how to work with US style companies.
• 12:40
  Brian Samson: So there's this massive, you know, where if your country does really well domestically, you don't have to look outside.
• 12:49
  unknown: Right.
• 12:49
  Brian Samson: But if your country is a rough place to live, due to no fault of your own, you find ways to work with people in other countries.
• 12:58
  Brian Samson: So Argentina's been exporting software engineers forever.
• 13:03
  Brian Samson: Brazil has become world famous for data engineers and AI engineers.
• 13:11
  Brian Samson: A lot of Silicon Valley companies are not just looking to Brazil for cost savings, they're just looking for it to get the best AI engineers in the world.
• 13:21
  Brian Samson: And that that's surprising to a lot of people, but it's it's exciting.
• 13:25
  Brian Samson: And then the last country I want to hit on is Nicaragua, but really Central America in general.
• 13:32
  Brian Samson: This has become a big competition between Central America and the Philippines.
• 13:39
  Brian Samson: Central America's got a lot of young, energetic, well-educated, perfect English speakers without accents that understand US style English, so it doesn't feel scripted or kind of boxed.
• 13:54
  Brian Samson: And they're doing all sorts of virtual assistant, BPO, back office, customer service.
• 14:01
  Brian Samson: And that has gone off famously well for a lot of companies.
• 14:05
  Jaclyn Strominger: Wow.
• 14:06
  Brian Samson: So Latin America is a series of a lot of different pockets of talent, and you just got to know kind of which card to play for what roles you're looking for.
• 14:18
  Jaclyn Strominger: I absolutely love that.
• 14:19
  Jaclyn Strominger: You know, it is so helpful, and I and I think this is actually something really key.
• 14:25
  Jaclyn Strominger: So, listeners, one of the biggest things about, you know, what Brian is doing in helping people find talent, you know, and for us to have success, you know, sometimes we have to have an expenditure so that we are not out there doing the things that are not our superpowers.
• 14:43
  Jaclyn Strominger: And so finding those people to fill in those spaces for us is really essential so that we can so that we can do what is our our superpower and our and what we're meant to be on this planet.
• 14:57
  Jaclyn Strominger: You know, we're not meant to, some of us are not meant to do the back office stuff while we do the front office stuff, so to speak.
• 15:02
  Jaclyn Strominger: So really important, I think, for to have that growth.
• 15:06
  Jaclyn Strominger: So I I'm curious, you know, as you were looking at, you know, talent, you know, how, you know, what are some of those key questions that maybe that you that somebody maybe who's looking to bring somebody on that they should really ask?
• 15:22
  Jaclyn Strominger: Like, how do they bring on like that perfect VA?
• 15:26
  Brian Samson: Yeah, sure.
• 15:27
  Brian Samson: So we have these conversations a lot, you know, as we do about a hundred placements every year with US companies, and we get a lot of questions on, well, you know, my budget is this, or or maybe maybe it's actually us asking them to kind of help help them get their thoughts together.
• 15:45
  Brian Samson: But I would think about what your budget is, because not every country is equal in pricing in Latin America.
• 15:53
  Brian Samson: I would think about do you want one or many?
• 15:57
  Brian Samson: Right?
• 15:58
  Brian Samson: Because you might be able to find one person in Paraguay, but could you build out a whole team?
• 16:04
  Brian Samson: I don't know, right?
• 16:06
  Brian Samson: Depending on the skill set.
• 16:07
  Brian Samson: Do you need really advanced English or maybe one person that's really fluent, and then the rest of the team doesn't quite matter because you have this go-between.
• 16:20
  Brian Samson: And that could lower your overall weighted cost.
• 16:23
  Brian Samson: Do you want to travel there?
• 16:26
  Brian Samson: Right?
• 16:26
  Brian Samson: Like Mexico or Central America is right there.
• 16:29
  Brian Samson: Buenos Aires is still a nine, 10-hour flight from Dallas.
• 16:34
  Brian Samson: So there's all sorts of considerations.
• 16:35
  Brian Samson: And then the last one that I've learned the hard way is equipment.
• 16:42
  Brian Samson: Do they need certain hardware?
• 16:44
  Brian Samson: Now, for a lot of people, you know, maybe it's social media or basic Excel spreadsheets or something like that.
• 16:51
  Brian Samson: A regular laptop will do.
• 16:53
  Brian Samson: But if you are a tech company, you might need to ship a big powerful MacBook or something.
• 17:00
  Brian Samson: And you realize, wow, it's three times the cost to get it in Brazil or Argentina or Peru because of tariffs and customs and things like that.
• 17:13
  Brian Samson: Right.
• 17:13
  Brian Samson: So these are all things that you know we might have people think about, you know, before they do it, and we'll steer them to the right country, the right city, and then maybe to answer your original question about types of questions that they should be asking the talent.
• 17:30
  Brian Samson: You know, after years and years of doing this, I think my answers have shifted to do it almost exactly like you were to hire somebody in a different city in the States.
• 17:44
  Brian Samson: So if you have a company in Cincinnati, but you're talking to a candidate in Dallas, interview them the exact same way you might hire somebody in Lima, Peru.
• 17:56
  Jaclyn Strominger: Right.
• 17:56
  Jaclyn Strominger: Right.
• 17:57
  Jaclyn Strominger: Yeah.
• 17:58
  Jaclyn Strominger: You just have to bring people on to and you have to see if it's the right fit and the right values, and then, you know, time like, you know, figuring out when people are going to work and all those things.
• 18:06
  Jaclyn Strominger: It's it's really key and important.
• 18:08
  Jaclyn Strominger: I love that what you're doing, you know, with talent, because talent is so important and to any company.
• 18:15
  Jaclyn Strominger: Now, I want to sort of switch gears for a little bit because there is something else that you do, which I think that people need to know about.
• 18:22
  Jaclyn Strominger: Um, it has to do with talent, but talent in a little different way.
• 18:25
  Jaclyn Strominger: And that is raising talent from a young age, so to speak.
• 18:29
  Jaclyn Strominger: And that is fostering.
• 18:31
  Jaclyn Strominger: And I wanted, you know, and to me, that is something that, you know, I'm a I'm a mom to biological kids, but I always think about my kids as being participating members of society.
• 18:44
  Jaclyn Strominger: That's what we, you know, that is the purpose of having children to not just not to not to just do your work.
• 18:52
  Jaclyn Strominger: No, just kidding, not to do the laundry, but but being participating members of society, right?
• 18:58
  Jaclyn Strominger: You know, maybe maybe back in the day you had kids to be farmhands.
• 19:02
  Jaclyn Strominger: I don't know.
• 19:02
  Jaclyn Strominger: But but but I wanted to bring this because because it still comes back to in some ways in my the way of looking at it is really fostering great people and bringing and bringing people in.
• 19:14
  Jaclyn Strominger: So I wanted to for you to share about how you got into fostering and and share a little bit about that.
• 19:21
  Brian Samson: Yeah, I I I so appreciate the the opportunity to talk about this.
• 19:25
  Brian Samson: I as you were as you were sharing earlier, you know, it made me think because I'm I'm a child of the 80s, I've got two younger brothers, and I think as soon as we were able to hold the lawnmower or the snow shovel or the or the rake, you know, my dad had us out, you know, doing all the yard work.
• 19:41
  Brian Samson: So and then you know, he could he could sit on his chair for once.
• 19:45
  Brian Samson: Um but foster care, you know, I didn't know anything about this world.
• 19:50
  Brian Samson: I didn't know any foster kids growing up, or at least that I was aware of.
• 19:55
  Brian Samson: I didn't know any other foster parents.
• 19:57
  Brian Samson: And then in 2020, my wife and I were at church and they had somebody from the local community.
• 20:05
  Brian Samson: There was like a foster program that they were running, like a nonprofit, trying to help, you know, connect good families with foster kids.
• 20:13
  Brian Samson: And uh Hawaii, you know, there's 1.4 million people in the state.
• 20:17
  Brian Samson: Uh, there's about 2,000 foster kids.
• 20:20
  Brian Samson: And she was just kind of talking about the lives that these kids had, and it was just really rough.
• 20:27
  Brian Samson: And the and the stats and the data.
• 20:30
  Brian Samson: I mean, it's I think there's like 3% of kids that are in the foster system will go on to graduate from college.
• 20:37
  Brian Samson: 3%, more than half will be really uh will get involved in sex trafficking, drugs, prison.
• 20:48
  Brian Samson: And it just got me, it got me really sad because I grew up in a nice, you know, midwestern, middle class house.
• 20:56
  Brian Samson: I never had to worry about any of that stuff.
• 20:58
  Brian Samson: We've got a biological son, and then we fostered a little girl and later adopted her.
• 21:04
  Brian Samson: But like, you know, these kids, they don't choose their environment.
• 21:09
  Brian Samson: They don't they didn't choose it, right?
• 21:12
  unknown: Right.
• 21:12
  Brian Samson: And and I think if you if you're well off, you just kind of take it for granted that every other kid is like this, but there's this whole world, there's 440,000 foster kids in the US, and they didn't pick their environment, they didn't pick their parents, they didn't pick the neglect and abuse and everything that they're going through.
• 21:31
  Brian Samson: So, as we heard about the speech, my wife and I kind of looked at each other like, you know, if we don't do it, who else is gonna do it?
• 21:40
  Brian Samson: You know, let's let's do it.
• 21:42
  Brian Samson: We have the resources, the time.
• 21:44
  Brian Samson: I'm not gonna say it was easy.
• 21:46
  Brian Samson: I was it was rough, but two years later, you know, this this little girl was, you know, we were able to officially adopt her.
• 21:56
  Brian Samson: She brightens up our room, you know, our house.
• 21:59
  Brian Samson: We took her in when she was six months old.
• 22:03
  Brian Samson: She's really close in July.
• 22:05
  Brian Samson: She'll have her six-year six-year-old birthday.
• 22:09
  Brian Samson: And you know, it's just the greatest joy, the greatest thing.
• 22:13
  Brian Samson: Again, you know, it's not easy, but anything worth anything is hard.
• 22:19
  Brian Samson: Yeah.
• 22:20
  Brian Samson: Yeah.
• 22:20
  Brian Samson: So I'd encourage you if you have it in your heart.
• 22:23
  Brian Samson: And then even, you know, another way to support this world is respite care.
• 22:28
  Brian Samson: There's a lot of burden on foster parents.
• 22:31
  Brian Samson: And sometimes they just need a break to kind of reset, regroup.
• 22:34
  Brian Samson: And you can basically take those kids in for a Saturday or a weekend, give those foster parents a chance to recharge, and you can make a huge difference.
• 22:45
  Jaclyn Strominger: Right.
• 22:45
  Jaclyn Strominger: Yeah.
• 22:46
  Jaclyn Strominger: No, that's huge.
• 22:47
  Jaclyn Strominger: Um, and respite care is it is it's really big.
• 22:49
  Jaclyn Strominger: And I and there's different types of respite care too.
• 22:52
  Jaclyn Strominger: Like there's respite care for people, I'm assuming like for foster because I know here in Reno, there's respite care for families who are taking care of children with their they have children of disabilities in need, and so the parents need a break, right?
• 23:08
  Jaclyn Strominger: Yeah, yeah.
• 23:09
  Jaclyn Strominger: But it that's so important.
• 23:12
  Jaclyn Strominger: So I'm I'm curious.
• 23:12
  Jaclyn Strominger: So when you know, the when you started to foster, you know, a lot of times I think people think of fostering or even adopting that the kids are you know troubled or coming from you know weaning off their you know drugs, so to speak, because their parents were unfortunately drug addicts.
• 23:37
  Jaclyn Strominger: So, you know, how do you you know, I guess talk a little bit about that?
• 23:40
  Jaclyn Strominger: Because I think maybe there's some misconceptions of of out there, so to speak.
• 23:47
  Brian Samson: I mean I'll I'll be a little raw here because it everything you talked about was in our case.
• 23:53
  Brian Samson: You know, our our little girl, when her birth mom was pregnant, slept on a park bench, had zero prenatal care when she was you know in and out of prison, when our little girl was in her first few months of life, she was in a boarded up meth house, you know, just like the worst.
• 24:15
  Brian Samson: But again, she didn't pick it, right?
• 24:18
  Brian Samson: She didn't she didn't choose that, right?
• 24:20
  Brian Samson: She didn't choose to grow up like that.
• 24:22
  Brian Samson: It just happened.
• 24:23
  Brian Samson: So yeah, I mean, like the the raw reality of it is most of the kids are going to come from rough environments, rough situations, but you're also making the biggest impact you'll ever make, you know, by saving them, rescuing them, you know, putting them in in a place that's safe and secure and stable, you'll make a huge difference.
• 24:51
  Jaclyn Strominger: Right.
• 24:52
  Jaclyn Strominger: And so what percentage of the kids who get into a foster family get adopted by that family?
• 25:01
  Brian Samson: I don't know that stat off the top of my head, but you know, there's there's two different types of foster parents.
• 25:09
  Brian Samson: There's usually relatives, so maybe like an aunt or an uncle or grandparents kind of step in to foster, and that's that's generally the most common.
• 25:19
  Brian Samson: And then unrelated foster parents are less common.
• 25:24
  Brian Samson: The unrelated ones, there's almost kind of two buckets there.
• 25:30
  Brian Samson: There's somewhat of like the professional foster parents that do this, and you know, they get paid, and there's the the ones that are kind of doing it because you know they they want to try to try to help.
• 25:43
  Brian Samson: And then, you know, further that's kind of spun off from the ones that are looking for foster to adopt.
• 25:50
  Brian Samson: And sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes you know, that foster situation gives that birth parent a chance to get their lives together, you know, and it's really, really difficult to return to society, get off drugs, you know, get back into a civilized, productive member of society.
• 26:13
  Jaclyn Strominger: Right.
• 26:14
  Brian Samson: You have a three-year-old you're still trying to care for, too.
• 26:17
  Brian Samson: So, you know, it doesn't always work that way, but sometimes that can be the the life raft that that birth parent needs to get their act together.
• 26:28
  Jaclyn Strominger: Yeah.
• 26:29
  Jaclyn Strominger: So I'm thinking about the you know, fostering, and I'm thinking about you know what you're talking about, what you're saying, you know, and how obviously it creates an impact.
• 26:41
  Jaclyn Strominger: And I I see there's a kind of a little bit of a correlation too, you know, between obviously helping somebody who is a local person in your community who is truly in need.
• 26:54
  Jaclyn Strominger: And then with what you're doing in these near shore countries, it's also helping these people who don't have the ability necessarily to you're you're adding to people's livelihoods in these countries as well.
• 27:11
  Jaclyn Strominger: I mean, you're like both sides of things that you're talking about right now are it's raising people up and helping them raise up insist in where they are.
• 27:21
  Brian Samson: Yeah, thanks for thanks for for framing it that way.
• 27:24
  Brian Samson: I I appreciate that.
• 27:25
  Brian Samson: You know, I think there's a lot of people in the world that just want a chance.
• 27:30
  Brian Samson: You know, they like they're they're humble, they're hungry, they're scrappy, they have all the attributes, you know, they want to solve problems, they wanna, they want to do good work.
• 27:43
  Brian Samson: They're not they're not they're not entitled, you know, they just they just want a chance.
• 27:49
  Brian Samson: And that's where I'd really encourage people to look at Latin America, look at Asia, look at Europe, look at Africa.
• 28:00
  Brian Samson: There's a whole global talent market out there, and some people just want a chance.
• 28:05
  Jaclyn Strominger: Yeah, I absolutely love that.
• 28:06
  Jaclyn Strominger: You know, Brian, I could talk to you about this for a long time.
• 28:09
  Jaclyn Strominger: I think what you are doing is truly impactful.
• 28:11
  Jaclyn Strominger: I mean, you truly are changing the world one person at a time, either way you look at it.
• 28:17
  Jaclyn Strominger: And it's really, it's really truly commendable and like it warms my heart.
• 28:23
  Jaclyn Strominger: It's like it's so great.
• 28:25
  Jaclyn Strominger: So tell everybody how they can learn more about what you're doing, both near shoring and learning more about fostering, because I think it's such an important um thing to share.
• 28:36
  Brian Samson: Thank you.
• 28:37
  Brian Samson: Yeah, I appreciate that.
• 28:38
  Brian Samson: Uh, we do conversations all the time about near shoring, you know, help people think through the trade-offs of different countries and cities and talent pockets and budget and so forth.
• 28:49
  Brian Samson: So there's no pressure.
• 28:51
  Brian Samson: And even the model we use at Plug Technologies, PLU G G Plug Technologies, is to simply advise, help you with the job description, source candidates, you interview, and there's no invoice until that person starts working and they bill hours, and we take care of all the payroll and everything in Latin America.
• 29:15
  Brian Samson: So there's it's really, really low risk.
• 29:17
  Brian Samson: And that website is plugg.tech, and there's a contact us form.
• 29:23
  Brian Samson: We'll make sure we we jump right on that.
• 29:26
  Brian Samson: In terms of fostering, there's one organization that really speaks to me.
• 29:31
  Brian Samson: So every, you know, generally every county, there's social workers that you know are in charge of that, but there's a national organization called Together We Rise.
• 29:40
  Brian Samson: And what I what what really spoke to me is oftentimes foster kids are moving from house to house, family to family, and they just have a trash bag, you know, to kind of collect what whatever small possessions that they have.
• 29:57
  Brian Samson: And you know, they they put together these sweet cases, they call them, and they're like little duffel bags and usually teddy beers and fresh clothes and things like that, and you know, just like a and a place for them to put all their other possessions too, give them some dignity, some self self-confidence and self-esteem.
• 30:17
  Jaclyn Strominger: I absolutely love that.
• 30:18
  Jaclyn Strominger: Okay, so listeners, we will put all of those links in the show notes.
• 30:21
  Jaclyn Strominger: And do me the favor, please reach out to Brian.
• 30:24
  Jaclyn Strominger: I think you know, the things that he is doing are really remarkable and really helping to rise and help everybody else rise above.
• 30:32
  Jaclyn Strominger: And that's really, really important.
• 30:33
  Jaclyn Strominger: So please reach out to Brian and then do me the favor and share this episode because this is an important message for everybody to hear.
• 30:40
  Jaclyn Strominger: And lastly, we have a school community called Unstoppable Success.
• 30:45
  Jaclyn Strominger: We'd love for you to join that.
• 30:46
  Jaclyn Strominger: That's also where you can be with other like minded people to help you rise to have unstoppable success.
• 30:52
  Jaclyn Strominger: Thank you, Brian, for being an amazing guest.
• 30:55
  Jaclyn Strominger: Listeners, thank you for listening.
• 30:58
  Jaclyn Strominger: I'm Jaclyn Strominger, your host.
• 31:00
  Jaclyn Strominger: This is Unstoppable Success, helping you leap to your greatest success.