Latest / The Growth Project / Episode 356: How to Scale Without Losing Your Why with Kathy Ligon

Transcript

Episode 356: How to Scale Without Losing Your Why with Kathy Ligon · The Growth Project

• 0:00
  You.
• 0:03
  welcome to the growth project. I am Doctor Milk. Louder. And if you are new to the podcast, the growth project is a byproduct of AMP, which is a performance psychology practice in Greenville, South Carolina, where we really exist to help people be better and pursue better.
• 0:19
  The podcast is a branch of bringing relevant information to you, relevant, guest, relevant experiences that hopefully offer a little bit of inspiration, a little bit of education, and a little bit of application in your life. And so today, I'm thrilled to host and have Kathy Ligon, who is a founder and CEO of Change Advisors in Greenville. And I'll tell you a little bit more about Kathy in a minute.
• 0:43
  But, Kathy, welcome to the Growth Project. Thank you for being willing to be a guest.
• 0:46
  Thank you so much for having us, mill. We have enjoyed our work with you and your team, and I'm honored to be here. Yeah, well thank you. Yeah, it's been a blessing. I guess I've met you guys a couple of years ago and learned about you and your vision, about hinge, and also about the future with boost, which is really your way of giving back.
• 1:05
  And so we look forward to hearing the story today. What I've been inspired by, I think people always ask me, Kathy, you know, who were the people that you'll enjoy working with? Who are the companies you enjoy working with? And my my standard answer is that the leader or the organization or the person exhibits some humility, curiosity and passion.
• 1:30
  I'm all in. And so getting to host your team at Mill Pond, getting to have a gratitude session with your team last year, getting to understand, what drives you, what inspires you, and trying to find that harmony, which is what we really talk about it and flows between your work and your life, between well-being and performance, and how you've tried to blend and balance that.
• 1:52
  I look forward to the conversation
• 1:54
  made two nil.
• 1:55
  this is a favorite part of my job getting to hear people's stories. So so so back me up. If I understand you were in public accounting
• 2:02
  one what drove you to accounting.
• 2:04
  How do you make that decision?
• 2:05
  Well, it it, failed me, Milt, as a lot of careers do. So I was a psychology major, actually, and fully intending to be a psychiatrist. When, the here's my story, but it's not far out from the truth. My counselor said to me at one point, you know, you could probably just graduate with all of these accounting.
• 2:30
  Easy A's you've been taking. So I found that accounting and math concepts were super easy for me. And, I did go in that direction early on for a couple of years, and it was a great foundation, but frankly, it lacked the meaning that I was looking for. And, so therefore the second part of my career, but I really enjoyed, getting to know financial systems and how they might create a mission.
• 3:03
  I love that we know the whole theory of career decision making is based on interest inventories, and that what we're interested in, we're more motivated, we're more motivated. We're going to find higher levels of success. And so interested in people interesting and purpose, interesting and helping people. But you also have to pay attention to what some of your gifts are or what are your strengths are.
• 3:23
  And so for accounting and math, you and I are our brains are wired differently accounting. And that does not come easy for me. And so so I think that is good advice sometimes for young people. We can spend so much time trying to pursue passion that maybe it's not where we're gifted. And so just to see it come together.
• 3:41
  Now, looking back on your career, the integration of your passion and your purpose and where you're skilled and where your heart is and how that came together for Hinge and Boost. I can't wait to hear more of the story. Yeah. Milt, I regularly say to young people that the point at which your passion and your gifts collide, there's a unique opportunity just for you.
• 4:07
  You might have to create it. Maybe it doesn't exist. But there is something intentional for you to do at that point. Yeah. And I think where we put so much pressure on young people, we forget that, that there's so much opportunity and and we
• 4:24
  my degree was not in psychology undergrad, but I had a very limited view of what I was supposed to do or what I could do.
• 4:32
  And even in accounting or even in psychology, they set limits on what here's what you're supposed to do with this degree. And so when you realize you were lacking purpose and you wanted to pursue passion, how do you how did you get into the educational field and how did you decide to engage? I wish I could say that that was intentional in the beginning, but as I said, things I think define you sometimes.
• 4:57
  So as a young accountant, I got to a particular tax season with a four year old and a six week old. And at that time, I was the first woman, accounting staff at my firm to have a baby. And I didn't know that there could be a different way or a different expectation. And probably there was at that time, to not work 60 to 70 hours a week with a six week old who was not sleeping.
• 5:29
  And to get through that, taxes. When, at the end of that season, I heard that the demand five side early education grew or they went to school needed someone to do their financial work. So still not understanding that might be an incredible launching pad for a career and a business. I just hopped over there intending to be there for 15 minutes.
• 5:56
  That turned out to be 17 years and then 22 more years. But being opportunistic when opportunities are in your past and seeing a vision for how you might uniquely use those opportunities was, was fun for me. Yeah. And I think what I hear out of that is also out of necessity for survival, for taking care of your children and their, you know, big fatherhood.
• 6:25
  Yeah. And so the two floats people know I love closer to that stick out in my mind. There's the road saying success come to those who are usually too busy to be looking for it. Yeah. And we don't want to miss the opportunity. But I think so many times we look so hard for the opportunity. We feel like we're further and further away.
• 6:43
  Well said. And then the other is Proverbs 2229 says, do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings. They will not serve before obscure men. And and so I love this idea of, would you say where your passion and your gifts intersect? There's a unique opportunity for you to become skilled in your work, become skilled, and create.
• 7:07
  Honestly, though, you don't have to, keep yourself pigeonholed into what's already been created. You can actually create your own path. But putting those, you know, in my case, how would you most of the time put a candle in education and a passion for that into a career. So to be able to put those together and then to create a business that doesn't exist yet because you see a need to serve a certain community, I feel like is, direction that anyone could go.
• 7:47
  Yeah. It's not just for a few people. And so what I hear still is,
• 7:52
  maybe not really intentional vision, maybe not a strategic plan. Maybe at the time, just following the passion and the skill set, looking for opportunities and how you can be great at home and how you can be great at work. And you've found this company that you were you were involved with.
• 8:11
  Where did the idea originate to found and, and and kind of do something on your own.
• 8:17
  I had the opportunity when I was with my former company, and we grew that company from 5 to 125 schools. I had the beautiful opportunity to move from a senior role to an operations role. And then to a growth role in the growth role was where I found my passion of the industry, and it really was not about the growth purely for growth sake, but it was about the connections with the small business owners we were acquiring to help them, and that their life's transition and they weren't.
• 8:57
  What, drove me to create hinge 22 years later was over time, I realized that I could serve a very underserved community. And this small business owner who had poured their whole lives into an educational experience that served children and families and in teams and, very often educators who were not businesspeople who were making one of the most important decisions of their lives to exit their business and their real estate.
• 9:31
  And I felt like I could serve that community in a unique way by combining my experience, but also, again, falling back on the accounting that I was really good at, not lacked in the industry, and my passion for that small educational business owner. So that's what drove me in in the beginning. Yeah, I love kind of that coming together and see an opportunity where people are underserved and that's giving you purpose and that's giving you meaning and using your gifts.
• 10:03
  And so real quick, before we kind of keep going down that path of some lessons learned, the difference between the mindset from a financial perspective to an operations perspective to a growth perspective, that's part of your journey. How would you how did your mindset develop and change over time and those different roles? And what is the mindset that is necessary for each one?
• 10:27
  Yeah, you know, in the financial role, I really had to create systems and benchmarking. And so at that time and still largely today, there is a non-existent proven path for an educational business owner to operate from a business and financial health perspective. And what I gravitated toward was that financial health and quality of mission are not at odds with each other.
• 10:59
  They're necessary for each other. So you can't possibly create the mission that you got into any business for if you don't have financial health. So that was what, I gravitated toward in the financial position. And, the operations position, I feel like was a very strong learning, ground of what do you not want to do, Kathy?
• 11:23
  And that was me. And the operations are, you know, because that is a incredibly difficult position. And I learned so much, I agreed to respect our operators tremendously. And, the work that they do to educate our youngest learners and support families and to support teachers and build businesses from that. But really, what? Again, the my love of growth and, not only what I saw were the advantages to growing a company, and some of those things were additional resources and, and mainly not money, but people and people with specialty positions who could create better experiences for children.
• 12:16
  And again, also supporting the lives transition of the company we were acquiring. We also built ground up schools. But I really, really loved the going out and meeting small business owners, learning about their lives, commitment. What were their goals? How could we collaborate to not only help them exit in the strongest way, but honor what they had created and continue and maybe even improve on their mission in the future?
• 12:50
  So, that's how I thought about the different roles and those amazing experiences I had. I'm eternally grateful for that. Yeah. And so I love kind of again, finding that harmony and that they don't have to be in odds because some people, the nonprofit sector that that values so much the mission have a negative connotation around capitalism and profitability.
• 13:14
  And those and sometimes capitalism and profitability forget about purpose. And so if we can find again the harmony between our purpose and profitability, that it's hard to have one without the other, because this is still just a dream. And this is maybe transactional.
• 13:30
  you look at the core of them. Yeah, definitely. I coach business owners all the time to understand how necessary they are for each other, not to consider financial health to be a negative thing, because a very often business owners do get criticized for thriving financially.
• 13:51
  But I say to people all the time, if you're awake in the middle of the night and you can't make the payroll or the rent, you will not show up the next morning and support your team and be good for anyone that you have a mission to support. So they they're necessities for each other.
• 14:12
  I remember, John Roseman was a parenting psychologist, and he used to say debt competes with children.
• 14:18
  And so, if I'm constantly in debt, furthermore, the foundation of what I do is an old proverb that says, as you think, so you are. But it's also interpreted do not God be with this kind of person because they're always thinking about the cost?
• 14:32
  Yeah, they're going to enjoy the work. They're going to enjoy the meal. They're going to enjoy what they're doing.
• 14:37
  So I love that perspective, in that process. So as you, you know, as we look at what you've been able to accomplish, and if I'm right in this over 400 transactions, the date in the 23 history, 23 year history, a 22 year history of hinge. What what have you seen change in the industry? What what are some of the challenges that you now face that you didn't face back then?
• 15:00
  Yeah. Floof. Okay. A lot, mill there's a lot. So, I think the, the things that I've seen change over time are the complexity of what it takes to operate a very strong educational company. That, has the mission of caring for, loving and educating young children and also supporting their families. That's a big part of the mission and the sophistication and complexity of that.
• 15:39
  As families have grown over time and have has, how the academic inflation of our education system has increased when you're teaching sign language to infants. Now we have language, foreign language immersion programs, and preschoolers who speak three languages. We are it is just amazing. The inflation and knowledge there. And then also on the transaction side, over the 22 years, we have had to hire developed systems and trained and manage very specialty team members like financial analysts, attorneys, diligence managers.
• 16:25
  Because the complexity of selling and navigating a business transaction transaction has, inflated so drastically. And then, of course, we are now working with larger. And so it's, we're bringing international players into the U.S where we're working with private equity buyers. So the industry has gotten more involved. Okay. Then we are doing more, complex work. So there's funding.
• 16:58
  Now, when I look back on how simple to my team that there was a day when we listed a transaction and then got a phone call later that it closed, and they think that's a joke. It is not. It's hard to imagine now. Yeah. And so you mentioned earlier and I, I should have picked up on that there about first female in your accounting firm with children.
• 17:22
  And and we've come a long way hopefully and being mindful of moms and working moms. But I imagine when you founded the company, there weren't a whole lot of business leaders, female business leaders, maybe more so in the education field.
• 17:37
  How have you grown over the years as a woman, as a mother, as a female business leader?
• 17:43
  How has that contributed to your growth, your growth in the company? You asked me that question, Milt. I talk about this regularly. When I was a young, parent and worker. There wasn't a single day that if I was at work, I felt like I should be at home. And if I was at home, I felt like I should be at work.
• 18:05
  The pressure to perform in both arenas was immense. And if you look at just parenting, you know, the generation just before me, very few moms worked. Now it's pretty common. But the expectation for moms in the home was was heavy. We were just navigating, what the possibilities were for work for young moms. Now moms have job sharing and part time positions and flexibility to work from home.
• 18:42
  So when I started hinge, it was important to me to allow all of our workers, not just our moms, our dads, and our just human beings, whether they have, live children or for children. The opportunity to, balance their life. And we regularly say we want our people to show up with their A-game. But when they leave the door, we want them to take their A-plus game back on.
• 19:13
  So if they are not good and healthy in their relationships and in their home life, we can't expect much at work. So it's been one of my joys to create a, company that honors the individual, their family, their priorities. And I promise you that that mindset has drawn the most incredible people to this company. Wow. Yeah, well, I love that.
• 19:46
  And the research is just backing you up that the companies, Gallup say the global workforce talks about the companies that drive engagement have higher level of engagement. They do find that balance between, the well-being of the individual and the performance of that individual in the company. And, we believe as you better people make better leaders and make better team players, make better spouses and make better partners and make better parents, and build better teams.
• 20:11
  And so I'm gonna put you on the spot. You don't have to answer, because I know it's. I mean, I've made a living out of telling other people what to do, but sometimes it's hard to do yourself. And so how have you tried to kind of what are some things you do to really have your A game at work and your A-plus game at home?
• 20:28
  How have you tried to do that in your own life? Yeah. You know, for me specifically, what grants me the most at this point in my life or the humans I call my littles? And those are the grand children. Because if you haven't gotten to grandchild stage yet, it's your reward for all the things you did as a parent.
• 20:54
  There is something so grounding with a little silly free human being. So every opportunity I get, I pick up a little. We have a few fun hours and I deliver them back to the hard working parent. That's one thing. Another thing is, rest. I mean, I really am a big believer in the power of rest and sleep, and I'm very protective of my sleep.
• 21:27
  I'd like to say I was better at exercise. I do know it's value, but I'm not that great at it. So, it's those things plus a very strong network of grounded friends and family, who support me and I support and is is that community of people, you know, and lastly, it's these amazing team members that I have the honor to work with every day.
• 21:54
  And they are just, one thing, that you didn't ask me this question, but, answer the one you didn't ask me. One thing that, happy about that we have always done at hinge is value. Integrity over skills. And I have invited a couple of team members not to remain in the company if their integrity was questionable.
• 22:24
  And sometimes it's so hard to do because they even clients like them. They do beautiful work. They, they are so smart. But if there's an integrity issue, it's just. And it won't happen here. We just don't have room for that. Not that we don't give people second chances, but, integrity over skills any day, and that is part of my grounding.
• 22:53
  So, Yeah. And I love that you've included that as part of your grounding. Because the peace of mind. Right. Because I was going to ask you about how do you stay grounded to to what you believe and not compromise this when, when you're trying to grow and sometimes, as you say, the financial health and mission can be in conflict, sometimes growth, and our core values can be in conflict.
• 23:15
  But it seems you have a clear picture in your mind of here's who I am, here's what I believe, and I'm not going to compromise those, for something maybe in a short term game. Yeah. That's true. I won't say that I've been perfect at it, Milt. I doubt anybody really could. But I'll give you one more.
• 23:37
  And this one is the the toughest one that I'm about to say. And my team and I talk about it constantly because it is hard for our people. One thing I had to learn is that I can't be all things to every person. And, I have a team full of heart and they will very often use their valuable time and energy to support people that they're not the best equipped to support.
• 24:08
  And frankly, at that point, you're also not doing that person any favors. And what it does is that it, depletes valuable, energy from our team, and it doesn't serve them personally. It also doesn't serve them in their work. So it's a hard lesson to learn to be able to give the kind redirection. Here's a suggestion for you, try to give them some information, but don't try to be everything to everyone.
• 24:44
  And I think that's really hard, especially as a as a business owner, when you start a business that you wear every hat and you play every role but understanding what are your gifts, what are your strengths? And, leveraging, I think, your job as a leader, and it sounds like you've done this beautifully at hinge, but an environment that maximizes people's strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
• 25:07
  And what I love about that, Kathy, what I hear you saying is it really doesn't serve the individual, and it sure doesn't serve our clients and it doesn't serve the team. And all the intentions are pure, like, I'm not like. But there's a fine line between being a servant and a servant leader that the intentions are good. But but it seems like you understand that that's not the highest, best use of their time, and it's a huge energy drain and doesn't provide a great value.
• 25:37
  Yeah, I agree with that. And you know, what I honor about that is that they're such nice people who genuinely want to serve everyone. But that balance, when you know that that's not possible. And again, at that point you're not serving anyone well. So to be selective about where your energy and your resources go, to not just not deplete yourself, but don't, send a person who you're not the best resource for down a path that you shouldn't.
• 26:17
  Yeah. And I think to me, that's not playing my game. Yeah. Good point. Yeah I'm not bringing my A-game. And so I'm definitely not going to bring my A-plus game. But I think you mentioned that earlier, especially as a female. And they even though the generations have changed in terms of more co-parenting, the research really suggests the female still has to take most of the primary responsibility, at home.
• 26:41
  Yes. I think the you know, I really watch, I have grown children who are parents and in beautiful marriages now and I watch their, better balanced division of duties and responsibilities. And I don't know how they got there, but it is beautiful to see. It's really the. They just seem to understand that that's a healthy way to do it.
• 27:10
  And that's an excitement for me from a change from just, couple of generations to a better balance, not just for them, but their whole family. I was laughing, my father was an old cotton farmer, and I was laughed with a friend of mine the other day. I was like, I don't believe you ever change one diaper in his life.
• 27:29
  And and, which is not a good thing. I know I'm I couldn't change another job diaper, but I was pretty good at my own own children. But, so, so one of the questions I had about kind of, again, taking care of yourself, the research and the feedback we get from business leaders is how lonely it can be.
• 27:48
  And you talk about what keeps you grounded is staying true to who you are. The littles keep you connected, their friends and family. So how how to. Because to do that, you have to be a little vulnerable as well. And how of you or what advice would you give to other leaders who are kind of carrying that burden all by themselves and, and maybe feel disconnected and misunderstood?
• 28:15
  Yeah, that's a hard one. I won't say that I've always been perfect, that that it can be very lonely. There is a boundary, although you want to be as transparent as possible with your team and my opinion, there is a boundary to, how much and what you share with everyone. I will say that early in my career, I really struggled to find other women business leaders to connect with.
• 28:47
  It was a it was a big problem. And then, I began to, perhaps as my company grew into new areas, I developed to more of a community of, also male business leaders, but incredible female business leaders who were also there in a silo creating and running and needing support. So the support systems for business leaders, I feel like are pretty solid.
• 29:24
  You might have to work a little harder to go find the right group. And sometimes for me, they're there. Trade association groups. There are there are other women educational business leaders and they might be women. Financial leaders or tax leaders or, you know, they might be in a business that could be a support business because there is another, female led business that does our work in our community.
• 30:00
  But you really have to be intentional to find that community. And then I do think, and I don't know, that I could articulate what the boundaries are. I think I've just made a gut feel for that. But I do think there's certain things that need to be discussed and strategized outside of your team.
• 30:20
  You know, there's a word that kind of you just said intentional.
• 30:23
  And I think if if you think about your career path, was unintentional in terms of maybe the role you ended up playing, but you were very intentional about understanding your gifts, understanding your passions, understanding what's important, and finding a need and what you know to serve others. But I also hear, well, there's a need to stay connected to other female business leaders and other business leaders.
• 30:45
  And if that's a need, then there's a way to solve that problem, right? Yeah. A great conflict. Yeah. Seems to be your mindset which, which which I like that idea of finding a need and solving a problem in that process. You mentioned some, just thinking about the business that you're in and the acceleration of learning and how we've accelerated the learning.
• 31:08
  And I imagine the pressures and expectations of parents putting their child in childcare or daycare or early education, as only magnified. What do you guys recommend or see or share around the best practices? What do you think is making the biggest difference in the development of these young children today? You know, I think you really hit on it.
• 31:33
  Mil the forever. There have been incredible educational programs for children. I remember 40 years ago we had some language immersion and we had of course computer and keyboarding instruction and things like that. Now we want our children not to do so much of that. So we do have to pay attention to best practices. But I think the thing that strikes me the most is the support around the entire family unit.
• 32:01
  So it's not just the child and that child's education, but you also have a family unit who needs to, have an experience, with care for their children that they can trust and believe in. That's easy to navigate. It's convenient. We can we can make or we can find you easy. We can communicate easy. We can make our tuition payments.
• 32:29
  Easy. Just the whole process of support around the family unit, siblings, parents, has been one of the best changes I've seen in the industry. Yeah. So if you can make something that's very stressful because you talked about the pressure of you working, and I think you said, I want a day that went by that said, okay, am I showing up the right way at work and by showing up the right way at home and that pressure to be great at everything.
• 32:58
  And so if you can help the centers that you support make the life easier, then that's that minimizes the stress. So what would you recommend to young moms now that are in the workforce and trying to be great at home and trying to be great at work and yeah, well, so part of it is a mindset, right?
• 33:16
  First of all, give yourself a big break. There is no need for perfection. Don't look in the areas that either demand or seem to demand you to be a perfect wife, mother, person. Give yourself a lot of grace. Know what, what depletes your energy and what? Restore storage and energy and be intentional to, to put that into your life and also surround yourself with people who lift you up and, don't give an energy to people that don't.
• 34:02
  You don't have to be you don't have to be controversial. Just don't give it energy, you know, don't give it your very precious energy that your energy toward life giving events and people so, so people, just human nature. They don't like to see you doing things that they can't do or aren't willing to do. And so how did you learn to manage that?
• 34:24
  Because I imagine there's been people that have, not that we'll call them haters, but, criticism or jealousy or their own insecurities of, maybe said things about you or challenge you, especially as you're breaking generational barriers about women in the workforce and women leading small businesses. How did you learn just about them and not give them any attention?
• 34:48
  Well, let me start by saying it, never was easy, you know, and I, I really struggled more with, as a younger worker and younger mom, younger wise younger friend, that other people's opinions and, ideas about what I should be doing or shouldn't do were really difficult for me as a younger person over time.
• 35:16
  I say this to my team and I think about it this way. If there's a criticism or a suggestion and some of those are valid, or there are pieces of where that in those. So, I think of the analogy that, I catch it and my catcher's mitt and I turn it around and look at it and examine it, and I take the pieces that could make me better there.
• 35:43
  There will be nuggets, and there they will be nuggets that will make you a better, server of your team. And server of your community and better wife and a better mother. And I look at it, and sometimes there's nothing in that moment that I want to keep. And I think that, sometimes there's a nugget and I take that, I'll use it, read the rest back, and sometimes I take the whole thing, and it's a great suggestion, and I've been able to put a boundary around how I let it affect me and how I use it.
• 36:20
  Basically. Do I use it to, take on guilt or criticism or do I use it, responsibly and look at the parts that I can, use to make myself or the people around me better and threaded the rest back just through. I love that analogy. And you just exemplified or just demonstrated what I mentioned about curiosity.
• 36:47
  Is there any truth in what they're saying? Can it help me better? I wonder why they're saying that. The humility. Is there maybe something a nugget in there, that maybe they didn't even mean, but I can glean from it. And then the passion around. Okay, is this going to make me better? And I think that freedom to choose that I can hold on to it, I can use it, or I just throw it back.
• 37:07
  I love that mentality and that analogy, in that process. So, so if you think, you know, life of innovation and intentionality and finding that unique intersection between, your passion and your purpose and your gifts after being in the business for so long, I know you've got the littles and other things. What continues to inspire you?
• 37:32
  What motivates you at this stage of your career, especially with hinge and the work you're doing there? Well, you know, primarily it's our team. This team has the biggest heart. They work beautifully together. They want to do good work. They want to serve people. Well, it's really hard not to be motivated by an educational business owner that just risked everything that they have to do the very hard work of serving our, most important learners and their, families and their teaching team.
• 38:13
  So it's hard not to gravitate toward that community. They make it pretty easy. So,
• 38:20
  that that community inspires the heck out of me.
• 38:24
  Yeah. Well, I love that. I think that's what, I just know in my life is the work I'm doing, and the life I'm leading doesn't inspire me.
• 38:33
  It's not going to inspire anybody else. And I think too many people focus on trying to be inspiring to me. Inspired. And and I love kind of kind of the, the mindset you have of a their passion, their willingness to serve, their willingness to attract and affect our most important learners. They're willing to sacrifice everything they have to build something greater than themselves.
• 38:57
  That's what gets you fired up. And that's what motivates you. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We're talking a little bit about boost. I know this is just maybe getting off the ground last year or a couple of years ago. Help me understand what boost is and what your hope and dream is for boost. Thank you for asking me that question.
• 39:16
  I love this so much. So occasionally an idea will be in my head so long that it's more painful to get it out and make something happen and, keep it there. So, I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone how, financially fragile our teaching community is across all spectrums of educators, not just in the early education community, but also in the K plus community and public schools and private schools.
• 39:49
  There's a limit to the resources that are available or that we make available to pay teachers what they truly deserve. So on the preschool level, teachers are very often, financially stable until there's a home or a health crisis, and that home or health crisis will typically send them out of the classroom. That teacher child bond, especially at early ages, is critical.
• 40:21
  And once the teacher is out of the classroom or takes another job somewhere else, it disrupts ten children, 20 parents, a whole school of, teachers. And our mission was to help teachers get past that short term event with a one time grant, to help them find unexpected medical expenses. We had a teacher with funeral expenses for a child.
• 40:50
  We had a teacher experiencing homelessness. There's actually a lot of food insecurity, and we can send immediate gift cards for groceries. We have heard so many stories. So based was launched about 18 months ago. We raised, This makes me so happy for our community. About a half million dollars. We've served about 250 teachers across the country.
• 41:21
  So now in my mind, we've stabilized 2500 children, 5000 parents and 250 entire schools and keeping stability for young children. So we hope to grow the these community. We're also adding in an educational component. Now, we really would like to support teachers and learning more about their personal financial systems and acumen to help support them and teach them how to do it better on their own.
• 41:56
  So we love the work that beast is doing. And and I could talk about that forever. Why? I'm just smiling because I'm just thinking about, you know, what were you good at? What were your skills that is math and accounting and and how those came about is probably sitting in your mind forever. But how that so, a part of who you are and you mentioned it all.
• 42:19
  You're just building a great business. It's hard to have purpose and achieve that purpose without financial help. And, you know, it says in math, what is good for someone to gain the world? They lose their soul in the process. What good is it to gain financial health and security without purpose? Beautiful. Nicely said. You know it again. It makes it easy to support such a giving community and just to be a small part of their success is a joy.
• 42:51
  But you see the ripple effect. If I can impact 250 children and you said that was, or teachers, that's 2500 children, that's 5000 families that we've now impacted. And, and a lot of times you're like, well, what can I do to make a difference? Right. And and now if I can have I love I love when I make connections or you make connections for me.
• 43:12
  So when okay, if I can help teacher be a plus at home, they're going to show up and have an A game at work. And so how do you stay true to who you are. It becomes so integrated with what you are and who you are, what you believe that it just is an expression automatically of your passion and your purpose and your beliefs.
• 43:32
  And I love the way you've done that, not only for hand. I love the way you've done that in your life, but I love the way not boost is just an extension of that. Well, you just tied all that together for me. Milk. Thank you. But no connecting those dots. I'm a little slow. You like, double mill?
• 43:49
  That's what we've been doing forever. But I think that's when I think about. Okay, I don't have to worry about you being inspired. I don't have to worry about you being motivated. I don't have to worry about you finding purpose. Right? That how you connect and and how you've developed your life and how you live your life.
• 44:08
  My new favorite quote is The Master the Art of living, makes little distinction between their work and their play. Their labor in their leisure, their mind and their body, their information and recreation, their love and their religion. They hardly know which is which. They simply pursue their vision of excellence and all that they do, leading others to decide whether they are working or playing to them.
• 44:29
  They're always doing both. That's beautiful. And that's I wish it was mine. James Michener said that, but that's all I have echoing in my mind. Kathy, as you're talking about how you've lived your life and how you've been in built hinge and how you've built boost and how you continue to live. And I think that's the best advice would you give to other people, in that process?
• 44:54
  Well, this was awesome. Either. So I got I got about 4 or 5 pages of notes here. I appreciate our relationship. I appreciate, who you are and what you're doing and the chance to come on a growth project. I know it's going to be encouraging so many people. Any final thoughts or words of wisdom you would like to share?
• 45:13
  I just really appreciate you and the work you're doing. Build and, leading teams. And again, my team had the best experiences with you guys. So thank you for having me on as you, also supported me through this conversation. So thank. Well, great. Well, we appreciate you. And again, if they, you want to find more information on Hinge Advisors, you can go to their website.
• 45:39
  I'm sure boo's Kathy, there's a link to boost on there if you're interested in supporting boost. Is that where they can find information? There is a link and it's loose by hinge.com. We would love for you guys to consider boosting your giving. Well thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you have any questions or suggestions or feedback.
• 46:00
  Also, I think the right terminology is to please like us or subscribe. Maybe that's the better word. I'm not quite sure on the tech, technicalities. But until next time, continue to be better and pursue better. And again, Gavin, thank you so much for being here. And thank you all for listening.
• 46:16
  Thanks for having me.