"Thoughts and Prayers" Are Not Enough

A tragedy unfolds or someone we know is in distress and what do we say? Or what do we post on social media? Thoughts and prayers. Thoughts and prayers. It's what we've always done and it's not wrong. Thoughts and prayers come from a place of deep compassion. We know that. But what happens next? If we want to make a real difference, we must act. We must take a step. We must act sometimes. Write a check. Today we're highlighting outstanding charities that turn generosity into real impact. From disaster relief to mental health, veterans, homelessness and at risk youth. Let's talk about how to move beyond words and into action. I'm Joe and my generous buddy over there, he's Kurt. And we are dudes in progress. Hey Kurt.

Hey Joe. Happy Friday morning.

Yes, it is. Here we are at, on my clock at 7:08 Eastern Time. We had a little bit of pre recording banter like we normally do, just kind of get the levels right and get things, get the juices moving. But I see right now that you are not in your palatial home office at the Stone estate.

You are where with Johnny B. I am, yes. I am gonna spend a couple days with my grandson and it's cold and icy here, just like back home because they're in Massachusetts. So a couple hour ride. But yeah, I went out to my car this morning, almost fell on my butt. But it's cold. Winter, Joe. I'm sick of winter already. I'm ready for spring.

A couple days, huh? Lucky you, dude.

Yeah, I'm gonna do a little babysitting and hanging out. He's, he's incredible right now. Just amazing. He's standing up in his little playpen here. This morning he went off to his daycare because we're gonna work, my son and I are gonna work today at home. So I have that luxury to take my work and podcasting on the road.

That's awesome. I have myself a little podcasting kit. I travel quite a bit for work, for my primary income producing activity, as I call it. And I have a little podcasting kit that I take with me and plug right in.

As long as you remember to bring everything you need, all the cords and the microphones and the computers and all the gadgetry required to charge everything. Yeah, you can do that. You can pull it off these days. And you know the WI FI password at your son's house, that helps. You never know what could hang you up. But here we are.

Yeah. Well, good morning, happy Friday and let's do this thing. Let me ask you Kurt, you know, you heard the opening and we have notes here, and you know what we're talking about. What do you think when you've heard me say thoughts and prayers are nice, but there comes a time to write a check.

I have a bit of anxiety or something when I see. I know you. You reference. You see people post that or say that, and I'm just kind of the person. I don't know what it is about me, but I. I can say that and I can mean it, but I always feel like I'm not doing enough. I'm really awkward in these moments when you have a friend, especially when it's someone you care about and know and you want. You want to say. You want to say the right thing. But I. The words just don't come to me. So maybe that's a one way to do it, I suppose if you follow up with other actions and that helps. But it really does feel awkward to me, put it that way.

Yeah, it is. It is awkward because the. The phrase thoughts and prayers, it's used a lot. Anytime you see somebody post something on social media or they come and talk to you about it, it's the first thing that I hear. Some form of it at least. Thoughts and prayers, hey, we'll be thinking about you. Hey, you'll be in our prayers, whatever it might be. I genuinely believe that it does come from an honorable place, but it also comes from kind of what you just said. I don't know really what else to say. I don't know what else to say. I don't know what else to do. Maybe the phrase thoughts and prayers offer some kind of comfort.

Yeah. I can't help but be critical on this when I see someone post that to wonder, are they just saying that to be nice?

Yeah.

I mean. Yeah.

Was that. Was. Were those words your. That you just wrote? Was that the extent of your thought and prayer?

Yeah, and I. I do. If I add to that, I feel obligated, is that that's the right word? Or if I do say that, I want to complete that action by actually having that person in my thought and prayer. And I've been. I have been better doing that as of late because we talked about prayer strategies and this was a major component of that, to ask God to comfort someone who's in a tough time. So I feel, you know, I guess over the years, I've found some of my own personal comfort in that I've made that part of my morning routine as best I could. I mean, I'm not Perfect.

Like anybody, it comes from a genuine place of compassion, wanting to do something. But I think it's really important. And I don't want to be hypercritical here, but I think it's really important to realize that, okay, thoughts and prayers are cool, but sometimes we got to take action, man. We have to do more. If you're in a financial position to write a check, then write a check. If you. If you can, give your time, give your time. Thoughts and prayers are cool. And I'm, you know, as a person of faith, praying is a critical part of my faith walk, and yours too, Kurt. I know that, but we're called to do more. Whether you're a person of faith or not a person of faith, I believe we're called to do more. I've written it myself. I'll be honest with you. I've written. I've written some form of it myself. Hey, we'll be praying for you. Hey, I'll let my church know and we'll pray for you. Or Karen and I will are thinking about you and we're praying for you. So again, I'm not being hypercritical here, but I just want to recognize that there comes a time to do more. I've written it myself. Have you ever written it like that or have told somebody about an issue that you're having and they've said thoughts and prayers to you?

Yeah, of course. And actually, I think being on the other side of that, if you put it that way, I think I've felt pretty comforted to see. Yeah, people say that. Now you say that. Yeah, it's my own problem. Right. What I'm expressing to you is, like you said, I'm not being critical of other people that say that. It's just. I can find it awkward. And sometimes when you hear of something that someone's going through, you also if you're in a position to gather others together, which I have been in a couple different scenarios. I've been on a board at work years and years ago. I don't know if you know this, Joe, but remember when dress down day was beginning to hit the offices and casual day, Casual day, Casual Friday. And we had. Living in Connecticut, we had learned about the insurance companies especially were doing this, wear jeans to work on Fridays, but to also combine it with a charity event or giving the charities. And I was very heavily involved with United Way at the time. I was the company representative. I did Big Brothers, Big Sisters, which kind of led me to that spot at work. But so we started it Was so popular. And we had a cause. We started with a woman who had a very rare disease called scleroderma and needed this experimental blood transfusion. I think it was monthly. At one point. They were $10,000 a piece not covered by insurance. And our company, from that kickoff paid that therapy for like a year.

Oh my gosh.

Through this. Give a dollar for a ribbon. And we had a whole committee around it. It was quite rewarding. And everyone felt good about wearing jeans on Friday and knowing they were helping someone who worked with us.

That's awesome.

That was an incredible.

Truly an impact, dude. And that's an impact a tiny bit at a time, right? And that's what we need, right? Just if enough people just give a little bit, a little bit of their money, a little bit of their time, what a dramatic impact.

The interesting to carry that story further. We kept. She got better. I mean, the. It's a tremendous success story in so many ways. And then we had this committee together. We were part of the United Way. And the next question was, as a committee, all right, no one wants to stop this. What's our next cause? We had a couple situations where maybe, you know, a home fire or something where we helped out. But boy, did I learn an interesting lesson getting feedback from people. Like, I remember one time we gave to an animal shelter and would you believe we got a bunch of negative feedback. I was a young guy at the time. I was only a couple years out of college and that blew me away. And all the committee members were so upset and they were very vocal about their complaint that we would give to animals instead of people. This has been an area that I've been thinking about spending some time on. I've been thinking about this for a long time to find the right one to. Not necessarily financially, maybe so, but also time wise. Because I love. I do love dogs and animals. But I'll give you one little lesson about that and I'll let you get into your thing from that experience was when we did decide we learned of a situation we would have to reach out to the. Let's say it was a person. And we'd have to say, hey, you know, we're from this committee. We would like to contribute to this situation that you're dealing with. But we really need to let the employees know why and who we're giving it to was what part of our guidelines. So we had to get their permission because you don't know, I mean, someone obviously, for what personal reasons, wants to stay anonymous for it or they don't want to take help, you know, pride, for whatever reason, I don't even remember.

But embarrassment, pride, I don't.

I think everyone pretty much said. I think everyone did say yes, if I remember. But that was not something, I guess, as a young guy, I didn't really process in my mind until I had that experience. So when you. Again, that can be an awkward moment to wonder, hey, if. If we do. And I've had this now, my other big situation is through my podcast and the community and the friends I've made. And I didn't realize bad situations happen and people have built relationships and they want to help out on something. I know that because I've experienced it and done it, but it's still, as a leader, I would have to reach out to that person and say, hey, you know, we'd like to do something for you. People are starting to chat. There'll be a little chat group going on, and there are people saying they'd like to help. Would you be all right with that? So I learned that lesson. Yeah, that's cool.

There's a funny little story that I've. That I heard a while back that illustrates this issue about thoughts and prayers and taking action. Right. Everything that you said, people. I'm sure people were praying in the background, but they are also taking action. Even a dollar. Even a dollar to wear jeans on Fridays is doing something right? Yeah, it's. It's giving a dollar, but also it's. It's making the. The calls visible, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

By wearing jeans. How cool is that? My gosh. I mean, every day is casual day now, and it's. We're lucky to get people to wear sweatpants to work, you know, But I.

Don'T think anybody donates through the casual day Fridays anymore either.

Yeah, but there's a. There's a funny little story that I heard a long time ago that I always get a chuckle out of. That kind of illustrates this. This principle. A massive storm hit and floodwaters started rising fast. A neighbor knocked on a man's door and said, the river's rising. You need to leave now. The man shook his head. I'm not worried. I trust God will provide. The waters got worse, forcing the man upstairs. A canoe came by, and rescuers shouted, hop in. We'll take you to safety. Again, the man refused. Thank you, but I have faith God will save me. The flood rose higher, and he climbed onto his roof. A rescue boat arrived. Sir, get in. This is serious. I trust in God. He shouted back. Finally, as the waters nearly swallowed his house. A helicopter hovered overhead. Grab the rope. The pilot called. Grab the rope. But the man waved them off. I know God will provide. Moments later, the man drowned in heaven. He asked God, lord, why didn't you save me? God looked at him, shook his head, and sighed. I sent your neighbor a canoe, a rescue boat, and a helicopter. What more did you want?

You have no idea why I am chuckling over here, and I know the story very well. And would you believe just two days ago, I relayed this story to my son?

Oh, no kidding. This is necessary.

Freaky dude. I mean, you told it much better because maybe you used the Internet. I did it from memory, but.

Well, I. I kind of did it from memory, but I wrote it down so I could.

Okay.

So I could read it.

Sorry, I didn't mean to accuse you.

Wow, man. Throw me under the bus, right?

You put more. You put more effort into it than I did put it that way.

Well, we're talking to God knows how many people and.

Yeah. You have a reputation.

Your son. Right. Have a reputation to keep.

I love that story.

I like this story because it speaks of people not only praying and thinking, but also people who are taking action to help this man. But it also illustrates when to recognize how God is helping you or how whatever is helping you. Yeah, take help, man. Take assistance. Take, you know, just don't do this weird, independent or I have faith kind of thing and not. Not take what God has placed right there in front of you.

Yeah, you have to be a receiver. We've talked about that. I think even in the prayer structures, learn to receive. That was in some of the things we talked about last episode. And that can be a challenging thing for people. I know it is for me. I don't. You know, I talked about other people not being comfortable receiving help. Hey, that's me. Guilty as charged. I would feel weird, uncomfortable about it.

This is me in a. In a lucid state thinking about this. But when I think about that, I think to myself, if I say no to that person helping me, I'm kind of stealing a blessing from them. I'm stealing their ability to give to a brother or give to a sister. And I'm stealing their. What God has put on their heart by my own pride. We call it God, right, Because we're people of faith. But whatever sense of humanity that you have, that that person has, we're taking that from them.

That's very true. Yeah.

By pushing that. By pushing their assistance away, by our own prideful nature, our Own ego. Yeah, don't do that, man. Don't do that to me, dude. Don't do that. Don't do that to your. To your neighbor or your friend. If somebody wants to help, even if I love it when. When somebody helps, and I really know I don't need help, but they come over and help anyway because they're a friend and, yeah, they're hanging out. Right. That's just so cool.

But.

But especially when you're in. When you're in a place of need, don't deny somebody that blessing or that piece of humanity that they're offering, because it's how we are. It's how we should be with each other.

It can be good for your own personal healing. And I was just thinking something as simple as someone congratulates you for something and you feel a little awkward, but I've learned to say, you know what? Thank you. Thank you. Be really sincere in saying. I really appreciate you saying that. Thank you. That always felt awkward for me years ago.

But I definitely want to talk about a handful of charities that I know. At least a couple of these are important to you. They're all important to me at some level that we can give to either our time or our money. And these are charities that. That are well respected, well known, that do a good job and are responsible with their money. But I do want to talk a little bit about those personal issues. When somebody comes to you and they have a problem or they have an issue, they have a tragic moment in their life. And we always say those words that we've talked about. I'll be thinking about you and praying for you. If we can just tack on one, one more sentence, and that is, hey, listen, man, I'll pray for you. My family will pray for you. We'll be thinking about you. What can I do for you right now?

Yeah, yeah, I know you do that, Joe. And not that I've had anything. I mean, a little personal struggle you might know about. You always do that. And you're right. That's a good question. Again, it's a little awkward to ask the question.

It's awkward on two sides. Number one, it's awkward for the person. Right. But you're also thinking to yourself, okay, what are they going to ask me to do? What are they. You know. Oh, boy. What have I just. What have I. What unknown have I just volunteered for? Well, now that you mention it, Joe, I'd really need some help repairing my roof.

I gotta remember that. Yeah, I gotta think of a good one for you see how you respond next time.

But the point is, we need to take action, right? Whether it's personally, whether it's a large public tragedy, whatever it might be, we need to take action. That's either writing a check or taking a step. Right.

And the truth of the matter is, even though I've felt awkward in those moments when I have taken some dramatic action, I gave you one example, a big one I did many years ago, but some even recently, again, a lot of them related to my podcast family with Internet strangers. But some of the reward of helping out and I mean, you can't solve all the world's problems. You can't always solve that particular problem. But I think the feedback from the people is, you can't believe how helpful that was. We didn't rebuild someone's house on our own. You know, we donated some money to help get by a little bit, and we gave the thoughts and the prayers and the. And the support as best we could. I mean, we didn't solve the problem, but I don't know, maybe we put a little faith in that person or couple to help them get through it. Yeah.

I want to talk about these five charities because I really like these. I like these charities and I appreciate the work that they do. And at some level, I've given or volunteered to all of these because I think that they do important work. The first one is Matthew 25 Ministries. That's based out of Cincinnati here, but they do national and worldwide disaster relief. I mean, we've heard a lot about hurricanes and fires. People need basic necessities in those moments. Clothes, toiletries, whatever it might be, shelter, medical care. But Matthew 25 Ministries really does a good job. And I'm going to put the link to all of their websites in our show notes today. They provide food, medical aid, essential supplies to disaster victims. I mean, hurricanes, earthquakes, anything else that you can think of. Here's an important statistic. 99% of cash donations go directly to the aid programs. Wow, that's a big deal.

That's incredible. Yeah. What's the good number you think, Joe, in your research?

I don't know. And I.

95 or 90%, I don't know.

And here's what I'll say. Here's. And this is a personal commentary that I didn't think we'd go down, but I will go down it. People rail against executives of nonprofits making a lot of money.

Okay, yes, I. Going back to my experience with United Way. Yes, I heard that one a lot.

But here's here's my take. If you have a nonprofit, you're basically running a large nonprofit. You're basically running a business that has overhead and expenses and resources and personnel and volunteers and buildings and all kinds of stuff that has to be managed marketing and all that stuff. Let's say you have an executive that you pay $100,000 a year, and that executive, reasonably good person, talented to a certain level, brings in money. Let's say that executive brings in $5 million to the charity.

Yeah.

And then you decide to hire a high powered, very talented executive. But that executive is going to cost you a million dollars a year. But because of the talent, connections, work ethic, mindset that this executive has, they bring in $20 million to the same charity. People are going to rail against. We're paying that person a million dollars a year. How much good can be done with that million dollars a year? Well, that million dollars a year just garnered us 15 million more dollars. Okay.

Yeah. A lot of people don't see it that way.

Right. So I don't necessarily rail against that.

Yeah. It's the ones that get caught skimming off the top illegally.

That's a problem. That's a whole different conversation. Yeah, that's a whole different conversation. So I don't know, I don't know how to answer your question because of that, but if 99% of cash donations are going directly to the aid program, I'm not going to fight with it. Right.

When my kids were younger, we did church work camps and not just donating money to these Christian charities, but as a group of high school kids going out into a community for a week and building homes and volunteering your time and the relationships and the impact you make in the lives of the people that you're fixing a ramp for them or you're building them a deck, make their home safer, putting a roof on. I did a few roofs. Yeah. It's quite an impact you can have on folks. And they get probably a huge amount of volunteers. That's why that 1% is their expenses.

People are taking action.

Yeah.

But if you want to give to disaster relief, you can't do much better than Matthew 25 ministries. And I'm a little biased because they're located here in Cincinnati and I have some intimacy with that particular organization. But Matthew 25 Ministries is a fantastic, fantastic organization. And again, if you want to donate to Matthew 25 Ministries, I'll put the link to their website in our show notes. The next one is suicide prevention. American foundation for Suicide Prevention. The AFSP people don't think a lot about this as a tragedy that we can be proactive about or as a charity to give to. It just doesn't seem to enter into our mindset when we want to give to some worthy cause to give to suicide prevention. But dude, suicide, it's not just a statistic. This is somebody's kid, their mom or their dad, a friend. The American foundation for Suicide Prevention does some really good work. 92% of their funds go to research, education and crisis support. They have helplines. They, they make a real impact through their 988 suicide and crisis hotline legislation. They have a, an out of the darkness walk that they, that they promote. And man, people are hurting. You never know how much people are hurting out there. There is, there's a real mental and emotional internal struggle that people are going through that you just don't know about. And you talk about somebody that doesn't talk about their problems. Right. Somebody that doesn't make their needs known. People who are on the edge of suicide are, are among the majority of those people, if you know what I'm trying to say.

There was a time when I didn't understand this particular area, but if you've been experiencing people that you care about with this, then you understand this better than anybody. We'll just say that this is a.

Worthy calls to give to.

That's one of those ones where if someone gave me feedback that they didn't agree with it, I might get a little bit disturbed.

Yeah.

I might lose it a little bit.

Yeah. And this 988 suicide and crisis hotline is important as well. It's a real thing. I don't know how more prevalent it is now than it was a hundred years ago or whatever, but it just seems like people are in emotional distress now. Either warped expectations. Whatever's going on in our lives, the culture that we live in, there are people who are genuinely emotionally and mentally hurting. And the American foundation for Suicide Prevention is doing important work. This is one that's also near and dear to my heart. Wounded Warrior Project. I'm all about anything that supports veterans. We have the country and the freedoms that we have right now because of veterans, because of the people who have fought to defend us and democracy and freedom worldwide. And we cannot deny their contribution to our lives, even though we may not immediately recognize it. But the Wounded Warrior Project is really important. They provide mental health services, career training, peer support for injured veterans. They help them get jobs. They help them with medical supplies and medical equipment. They Help them with therapy. You've seen the commercials for the Wounded Warrior Project. It's an important charity supporting our veterans. They've provided over $2 million in emergency grants to wounded veterans, probably over 300, 250 to 300,000 veterans and families. Just important, important work, the Wounded Warrior Project. And of course the title of the organization speaks to what it does. It focuses on veterans who have been wounded and need help getting jobs, career training, peer support, mental health services, so forth. This is an important charity. This is one that whenever they have those charities at work that you pick, hey, what charity would you like to give to? Almost inevitably it's Wounded Warrior for me.

Okay, yeah, really important. I was thinking of our generation thinking back to the Vietnam vets who got no support. Not, not only that, they got chastised and had to suffer in solitude with all of the trauma of that conflict for them. But. And then in, you know, in recent years, of course, the wars that we've been out, you know, our military who went out, men and women who went out to defend because of the attacks of 9, 11 is where I think a lot of this recent wounded warriors, just traumatic, incredible stories of bravery and trauma that they survived. And it's mental too, like you said, that people have to understand this is a huge thing.

I'm so glad our culture and our society learned from the mistakes of Vietnam and how we treated those warriors that came back.

I think so, yeah.

Many were drafted, but many volunteered, but still they served and they deserved the dignity of a celebration. My father in law, just my father in law and my wife who accompanied him went and I can't remember the name of the organization now, Freedom Flight or whatever it might be. It's where they take veterans and take them to their respective. Fly them to their respective memorials in Washington D.C. and my father in law is a Vietnam vet. And when he came back from the trip, it was really cool because they gave these men and women what they didn't get when they came back the first time. People were cheering, waving flags, whistling, standing and shouting, you know, welcome home. It was a big deal, man. So I'm all for our veterans. I'm all for our veterans. And the Wounded Warrior Project is an important, important charity to give to. I really invite you to check it out. I want to talk a little bit about homelessness, Kurt. Homelessness is a real problem in the United States. Some cities have rampant homelessness. Every, every large city or even every town has a homelessness problem at some level. And me being kind of a Libertarian minded person. I believe that we are our brother's keeper and we have a responsibility to help humanity. The difference is I just don't believe it's the government's responsibility to do it. Regardless, homelessness is an issue. The catalyst for homelessness could be mental illness. It could be they choose that lifestyle. It could be many things. Could be that they're just down on their luck. They don't have the mental support, they don't have the family support and the people around them that can help build them back up and move them in the right direction. But homelessness is a real problem. And the Volunteers of America, they do important work when it comes to homelessness. It's not about just losing a home. It's about stability and security and dignity that's lost as well. And they provide shelter, job training, addiction recovery, mental health support. And 90% of their funds go directly to the programs, which is awesome. Like I said, I don't know how that math works, but it's awesome. And they also do a lot of work with veterans. 25,000 veterans, 500,000 nights of emergency shelter in 2024. They just do important work when it comes to bringing people a step up. Right. A hand up. Not a handout necessarily, but a hand up. You could really do some good by either volunteering or giving to the Volunteers of America. Because homelessness is a real issue that we have to deal with as a society that we have to deal with as humans. And the Volunteers of America are doing a great job.

Yeah, this is the one that hurts. When I go into New York City and see someone sleeping on the curb, boy, I feel pretty helpless and I don't really understand. It's hard for me to understand why that is happening.

Yeah.

But last year, my company does a really nice thing. We have one day of. We. It's not a day of. They give us a day of to work as a day off to do a day of volunteer. I did one last year. I just try to do a lot where I could get outside a little bit because I'm in the office all the time is one of my personal goals. But there was a piece of land that is next to a homeless shelter home for people in transition. And they had a. They were fixing up the land, the farm, so they could grow food and share with the food, shelter and stuff. And that was really rewarding. But yeah, this one. I've always had a soft place for anyone who's in this position.

And we as a culture can be so judgmental without understanding what brought this person to that place without really having compassion and empathy with what brought them to that place. They're overlooked and ignored and ridiculed and forgotten about and set aside. And, you know, there may be some aspect of maybe that's the life that they want to live. And I accept that. Right. There may be an aspect to that for some people.

Yeah.

But for many people, most, they just don't know another way. They get caught in an economic system that they can't get out of, an economic crisis that they can't get out of. And Volunteers of America is really doing important work.

Good one.

So next is one that I'd like you to speak about specifically. And I know that you have some personal experience with this organization, and it's a tremendous organization to give your time to, but if you can't do that, certainly it's a great organization to give your money to for at risk youth. And that's the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America. Basically what they do is they pair children with mentors, right. To help them succeed, to give them life lessons, to impart some wisdom or just to spend some time hanging out. Right. It doesn't have to be dramatic. It could just be going to a park or taking them to a baseball game or throwing a football in a yard somewhere. 83% of mentees through Big Brothers and Big Sisters graduate high school and they're more likely to attend college. So this is important work. Right. They've served over 2 million kids in the past 10 years. So this is a big deal. And I know you have some personal experience with this organization.

Yeah. I'll give you my personal history. When I got outta college, again, going back to that period of time I was working and I wasn't liking my job at all. And I started looking at other jobs. And one of the jobs I looked at was kind of a high school for troubled kids. And when they told me what the pay was, I like, I'd like to help people, and maybe I like working with kids and young youth, but I can't take a $5,000 pay cut at that time. Like, that's. That was against my other value to try to raise my own family. So I said, you know what I could do? I could volunteer and I could work where I am and work in the business world or however. I hadn't figured it out yet, but. And I looked and I got involved with Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and again, another huge learning experience for me, of course, having a fantastic father of my own and family upbringing and the young man, young boy that I was connected with, a lot of these kids have really. They try to match you or not have someone who has, like, traumatic, real bad, severe problems, someone who just needs a friend because their dad's not there. You don't realize how important your dad is until you don't have him. And I was like, what impact. My whole thing was, okay. I mean, what kind of impact can I really make? I mean, they only ask you for a couple hours a week. That's it. You know, on a Saturday, take them to a ball game or whatever they're interested in. And a couple of things from that I learned was, oh, my gosh, they look, you got to make a commitment. Because they say to make a commitment for a year because, I mean, they latch onto you. Like they. They're haven't had a drink of water in a desert. And I did not expect that. And his mom said to me, you know, not that I was. I was always faithful to the time. I never missed a week, but she said, you don't realize how important this is to him. He looks forward to this. And he would say the things. I would take him to a monster truck, and he would say, oh, I've been. I've been to Hartford before. And as we're going along, I'm realizing he's never been to Hartford before. He's never been to the Harvick Civic center, you know, to see the monster truck. And the things that, you know, we. We didn't always. You didn't have to do, and they didn't ask you to spend money, the boy. Matter of fact, they encourage you not to just spend time with them and you build a relationship. And I did that Till he was 16 years old. I think he went from, like, nine years old until he was 16 for seven years.

Wow, Kurt. That's a commitment, dude. That's awesome.

And, yeah, I had no idea that a couple hours a week consistently could make such an impact. That was a huge lesson that I learned.

So do you. Do you know where this kid is now? And.

No. You know, we've lost touch over the years. I had my own kids, and, yeah, I faded away from it.

Good for you. I'm certain it made a huge impact on his life. So the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America clearly is an important charity to give to either your time. If you don't have the time, give your money. Right? But this is one where your time is the most important thing. You can. You can give, but if you can't Give your money.

And I think some of these charities, you know, that was supported by the United Way, we used to get that kind of pushback from people because they didn't know where the money was going. You gave to the United Way. And the United Way, with the board of directors, would determine where the pot of cash would go to which charity. And they would argue, well, I don't want, you know, why does so much go to the YMCA there? But they ignored the fact that the Big Brothers, Big Sisters was getting a piece and the homeless shelter was getting. And the food pantry and things like. It's like you ignore all the good because you argue with. I mean, you. You give one. One donation through your payroll deduction. You don't even know you did it. And it benefits a whole plethora of volunteer work. So.

No doubt, no doubt. There you are. There are five charities that I think are highly worthy of giving your time and your money to. Matthew 25 Ministries, the American foundation for Suicide Prevention, the Wounded Warrior Project, Volunteers of America, and Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America. So here's my challenge to all of us. Let's pick one, right? Or pick your own. But these are worthy, one of these organizations and do something today. Even if you're making a $5 donation, a $10 donation, maybe it's just volunteering. Maybe it's just calling and saying, hey, what can I do? Maybe that's your first step. It doesn't make an investment at all to make a phone call and say, hey, what can I do? But let's take some action together and pick one of these charities. Pick a charity of your own. Somebody that pick a person. Maybe it's a human being, right? Maybe it's not a big organization that you can help today. Donations, big or small, make a huge impact. Volunteering changes lives, dude. I mean, it does not only their lives, but your lives as well. You learned a lot from your interaction with Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

Yeah. Feels good. It does feel good, too.

Definitely. And share this episode. Right? Share this episode. These resources can certainly help somebody in need. You know, Kurt, thoughts and prayers are nice. They're a beautiful start. But sometimes you gotta write a check and take action, you know, It's a.

Great show and very inspirational, and I am gonna take some action. It's been on my heart for too long that I've not taken action further in this, you know, more consistent basis. So thank you. Thanks for bringing this. Yeah. Great job.

Thank you. Let's get into our stuff. What's your win for the week I'm.

Going to pick a. A work win for the week because at work we successfully launched our brand refresh and I was involved in a. A pretty big portion in internal branding because I support the intranet. And it was. There were some challenges to doing this. The colors and how we do it and getting the right people connected. We had a great team of folks that helped us get through the challenges and pull it off. Some of the challenges were everyone's got an opinion and having to listen to all the little nuances of that. And I'm glad we started it early and did everything in a test environment and got some of the kinks out of it and even some of the things I wasn't thinking of. Some people came in and said, hey, what about this? And I'm glad they came to us early and we fixed some of those problems. And they asked me to do a blog post to show people how to apply the brand to their websites. And Joe, I got over 2,500 hits or reads on that blog post being the biggest viral blog post I've done in my career so far at work. So.

Oh, congratulations. That's cool.

Good feeling, high visibility, because this was a huge change. We were at the New York Stock Exchange ringing the bell that day last. Last Thursday is when we did it. So, yeah, it was something that could have gone really bad and it's been extremely well received and very rewarding. So.

Well, your company has one of those classic logos that are easily recognizable that, that has a. But it does because it's been around so long and it has an old school feel to it.

Yeah.

So I'm sure, I'm sure you and your team did it justice.

And it was. They had a big mark, they had a huge consulting group do a lot of that kind of work. But I was applying the, the work that they did in colors and logos and stuff. But to hear people's opinions on every little nuance of that and some shock. You know, people are not used to change. But I think I had just yesterday someone say, you know what it was actually I was having a skip level with my boss's boss and he said, you know, getting used to it now, you know, you're using it in your PowerPoints and people I think are starting to come to like it. So that's all very rewarding. How about you?

Well, I traveled last week to Canada just north of Seattle, Washington and we developed a marketing and sales plan for a new region and sister company that I'm working with and got A lot done that week and we have a solid plan in place to pursue some underperforming accounts and pursue some additional business. And it's a little, it's a little different because we're dealing with a sister company with different customers and different markets and different types of equipment. So it's new to me. But the team gelled together really well and we're moving in a really good direction and I'm pretty proud of the work that we did.

Awesome. Such good work. I love that.

It is really cool.

I was excited to hear about that.

How about your resource?

This is a book I'm reading and it's kind of a sister book to another Max Lucado book I've been reading. It's called Calm Moments for Anxious Days. Max Lucado. It's a 90 day devotional journey. And continuing on with our conversation we had last week about prayer, prayer structures. I think this offers up another component and I've been using it every morning as my reading material. So it opens up with a scripture quote and it has a brief message from Max Lucado. He has the section of scripture of hope and also he has little places where if you were writing in there, but you could pray your anxious thoughts to release. And he's got a little God's promise to me message, how God makes promises and there's a little scripture there I think. And then, then you could just continue on with your, your prayer. So it's a great way to again structure your morning routine. But I found this one on Amazon Unlimited and it's something I've been really enjoying. It's really quick, real short, little short. Daily devotional.

Can't go wrong with Max Lucado.

It's a great author.

Good storyteller too. My resource is an interesting one. I love the digital world and I love anything that can make my life more convenient. I'm surprised I've not taken to this technology sooner. I discovered Google Wallet. I know it's weird, it's been around a long, long time. But I've discovered Google Wallet and I've always kind of seen it there but never took advantage of it. And here's the really thing about Google Wallet. You can use it to keep your of course your credit cards and your debit cards in there. It's all very safe. It's all right there. If you have the proper safeguards on your phone, it's. It's safer than carrying a credit card in your wallet. Right? But those places that, that tape that take the, the tap processing for your Credit card. This is a thing of beauty. You can just. You can use it just to. You choose your Google Wallet. Tap on the. Tap on the. On the device that they have there, and you're. You're on your way now. Again, it. This is something that I'm surprised I didn't take two years ago. But also what I found out is you can keep stuff like my Kings island passes in there, my Delta boarding pass. When Delta sends me my boarding pass, I put it right into Google Wallet, and I throw a bunch of stuff right there into the Google Wallet, and it's fantastic. And I'm sure Apple has its own version, but, dude, Google Wallet's awesome.

Yeah. I've been reluctant to this, too. Although I use Apple Wallet, and mostly because I'm forced to. My Disney Vacation Club has to be in there. They went away from the card, and that goes there. And like you said, my Southwest Airline boarding pass, which works pretty well. Do you ever have problems, though, at checkout using that? Because I've had problems.

I've probably used it. I just took to it probably a few months ago. Used it dozens and dozens of times. I used it on my recent flight.

Yeah.

Delta. My Delta boarding pass was on there. I pay every chance I can with it, and I've not had a single.

Okay, so maybe I should go back to try and, like, I had my debit card on there, and I don't know. I think I switched when I switched. I think I had to get a new card by getting. I think I was hacked or something. And then I didn't put it back in because I was a little reluctant. You gotta have the. For me, I had to have a backup because sometimes it wouldn't work. But, yeah, no, I. It's definitely incredible. And maybe you and I are probably last to this game because there's a lot of people listening to us going, where. Where you been, dude? That's right.

That's right. That's all right. I have my fast spots and my slow spots. Right? But I dig it.

It's.

It's a neat. It's a.

It's.

It's cool. Just makes it very, very convenient. Let's wrap up with our quote.

I got a short one for you. I think we've used a quote from this person before. No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another Charles Dickens.

Oh, boy. That is a good one, man. That is. If you feel like. If you feel like you have no use in this world, but you've helped somebody Carry their groceries or hold the door open or pulled over when they were broke down to see if they needed help, or even if it's just a kind word and a smile. Yeah, you've lightened somebody's burden. You're useful. Yeah, you've made a contribution.

I think this can be helpful for your own personal mental health, helping others, especially if you've had similar struggles. You're very useful. You might not think so, but you have no idea the impact you can make.

Thank you, Charles Dickens. Now, I'm a fan of short, pithy quotes. That's not today. My quote comes from the Bible and we talk a lot about our faith here. And I'm so happy, Kurt, that we don't shy away from our faith on this show. Not every one of our listeners have a faith foundation. Many do, but many do not. But the wisdom that our faith brings us and the peace and focus and sense of purpose that our faith gives us can't be denied. And wherever you find that faith is up to you. Even if it's no faith at all, right? Wherever you find your peace. I'm all about that, dude. We happen to have a Christian foundation to our faith and I'm glad we don't shy away from it. So this comes from the bible. James, chapter 2, verses 14, 18. What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith, I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by my deeds. Faith without works is dead, man. You can profess your Christianity, you can profess your faith in God, but as James says here, faith without works is dead. I love the spot where it says, suppose a brother and sister is without clothes and food. And one of you say, go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but doesn't do a thing about it. You've done no good.

Yeah, and this is one of those paradox of the Christian faith too, isn't it? Because God's promise is your. His grace and his gift to you. You don't get that by good deeds.

Right? Yeah, but we're called, we're called to, to give to others, to, you know, we've been given grace freely without, without doing anything.

Right.

But the paradox, you have to earn it.

Yeah.

That gift. In order to express that gift, we have to show action to help others.

I believe that's the right way because this could be a paradox.

No doubt.

Good show.

Well, let's wrap up right there, man. Our website is dudesinprogress.com dudesinprogress.com if you want to reach us, email us, tell us what you think about the show. Maybe you want to tell us what charity you gave to. We'd love to hear from you. If you want to participate in the show some way, just email us. Dudesudsinprogress.com. that's dudesudesinprogress.com. remember, whatever you're doing, wherever you're, however you're helping, even if it's a little bit, you don't have to give a lot. You don't have to be perfect in this. And what is perfection anyway? Progress is better than perfection. If you're giving, just give. It'll keep you moving forward.

Great inspirational show today, Joe. Thanks for bringing this and I'm inspired to do to do better. Let's do better next week.

We certainly will talk to you soon.