March 25, 2025 • 41 mins
After losing his job, Brian felt called to contribute to society in some way while looking for a new gig. He found mowing his own lawn to be therapeutic, so he figured why not offer to do it for folks in need. His accidental nonprofit I Want To Mow Your Lawn has grown into its own army of 1,404 normal folks who’ve mowed the lawns of over 2,000 people!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everybody, it's still Courtney with an army and normal folks.
And we continue now a part two of Alex's conversation
with Brian Schwartz right after these brief messages from our
general sponsors.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
One of the things you just said is that neighbors
reaching out. That's interesting, Like I wouldn't have thought about that,
Like why are I mean, I can kind of guess,
but tell me why neighbors are reaching out being grateful
to you guys.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Well, it's a broad aspect, right, It's a blend of
both neighbors reaching out on behalf of their home, on
their neighbors who could use the help. Obviously, we want
to speak with the homeowners directly for a myriad of
reasons to get their permission, because it helps the overall
(01:06):
neighborhood look good, because maybe that neighbor is trying to
sell their property, but they don't make that sale because
the neighborhood isn't looking pretty right. But at the same time,
also on premise, I've literally seen like neighbors walk out
of the door or look over the fence saying thank
you for doing that, like they've been having some trouble.
(01:27):
So it's multifaceted. And that speaks to the point of
going back, going back to August of twenty twenty, at
a time when I wasn't even thinking about creating a nonprofit,
there was this perfect stranger, this woman in New York
named Sloan who sent a snail mail air like a
(01:49):
letter in the mail that said, I saw the story
about you. And again, this was a person that I
was not ever. We didn't help her with lawns, but
I guess it was a time when she needed to
hear or see something. I didn't know what she was
going through. I didn't know this person. She wrote me
a letter saying, dear Brian, I saw the story about
(02:11):
you mowing lawns. It gave me some hope and inspiration.
And then she went on to say I once saw
on a T shirt be the reason someone believes in
the goodness of people, and she left it off with
you are that reason, sir, and that it made me
cry and it was something that I needed to hear
in that moment. It made me feel valued, like I
(02:32):
was doing something meaningful, and I wanted to scale up
that feeling right like realizing I'm onto something just bigger
than myself. Now, that changed my whole mindset from doing
something to keeping me busy until I figure out the
next app, to finding meaning and purpose in something, and
that's why I keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
One thing, with the gap of ten thousand requests two
thousand people, you have a really fun line of like,
there's always people out there that probably hate me.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
So there's a bunch of mechanisms I've put in place,
including simple things like auto responder on all of our
social media platforms and even some of the emails that
we have set up just to at least confirm that
we have received their message. I tried in the in
the beginning to respond to every request, even on social media.
(03:28):
Now I think I I probably have a pretty big
backlog on our Facebook page, and I feel bad that
I have not been able to get around to everyone.
We do what we can when we can, and I yeah,
I've I've definitely lost sleep over the fact that I
haven't been able to help everyone that has reached out,
(03:49):
and so we just try to celebrate the wins.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
One thing I would say one of the reasons I
wanted to bring it up is I think almost every
Army member you know, member of our army and normal
folks and people listening right now should sign up, you know,
with you guys as a volunteer, and you know some
you know we'll have more time and you know they
can start getting rolling on it now. But part of
what I was thinking when I was preparing for the
(04:14):
interview last night is even if you just sign up
and then you get this ding of hey, somebody around
me needs help, I think you're more likely to go
do it then. But even if you're not, like planning
to do it the next week or so, I just
happened to hear that, hey there's a guy three miles
from me who could use the help, you're likely going
to do.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
It, right, and we serve as like instead of going
I know there's people that are eager to help, and
we make those connections a bit more comfortable, instead of
going door to door. Right like, we're handling everything from
A to Z from fielding and vetting those inquiries before
they even get passed along, and those those volunteers, even
(04:53):
it's one time a year, it makes a difference. Like
that's the benefit of volunteering with us, Like there's no
we haven't any contracts or commitments and even if you
get that lead that might be three miles away, you can.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
You can decline it.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
There's no hard feelings, there's no offense taken because we're
also not shared like until like both parties like agree,
like we're not sharing that contact information, so you're just
getting a general idea of a profile of a home
and the situation. And then if someone sees a volunteer
listen on our website, they just see the general information.
(05:29):
So we also try to like be that barrier of
like safety, security, comfortability, and flexibility.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So other people are now using your platform. I think
it'd like tell me about the partnership with our friend
Rodney Smith. So Rodney was episode like four or five
in the podcast, super early on and raising men and
women long care. For people who haven't heard his episode,
it's an amazing one and he's honestly one of the
(05:57):
most humble and genuine human beings I've ever or you know,
met in my life. And obviously one of our listeners
I need to pull up the email before the end
here to one of our listeners recommended that we interview you,
and I thought about you know, Rodney originally you know
out the Gate and thank you to hey, like you
guys are doing similar stuff, Like I was curious and
(06:17):
then when I saw your website, do you have a partnership
with them? Like that is amazing because so many people
would just want to be competitors and not partner with
an organization that's similar. But tell me about your whole
Rodney story.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
For sure, and and to just right out the gates,
I want to say, not in not a and not
a wanting to compete, but collaborate, right, Like there's that
saying where it's like one plus one equals eleven.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And so it was actually like in the early days
when I didn't know about Rodney Smith, and maybe like
I subconsciously had in the past had saw something about
like kids doing that, and then maybe that's what was
subconsciously made me decide to mow lawns of all things.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
For people who don't know tell him a little bit
about Rodney's story.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Yeah, So it was.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
In the early stages when I first got started, I
didn't know much about Rodney. I might have subconsciously had
seen some kids that were doing loans for elderly back
in the day, and that might have like stuck with me,
which might have been a part of reason why I
got started, but I had no idea about his organization,
and it was actually I received an email when things
(07:34):
started to pick up and went like viral in a
sense online saying you should reach out to Rodney Smith.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
He does something similar.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So I researched him and I saw here like a
tremendous following, and we actually I reached out to him
and ultimately when he was passing through New Jersey, we
had a chance.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
To one of his fifty.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
One of his fifty state tours.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
He was passing through New Jersey and we did an
opportu and need to collaborate on one of my the
homes that I had dated ten Neck, New Jersey and
just had chances just talk about what the nonprofits like
and asked him for some tips, got a video and
some photos together. He gave me his laze potato chips
(08:17):
that he had branded with his name on it. Yeah,
he's like his face on the laze potato chips.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Oh yeah, like Freedom Lay I think did a year
they put like heroes on some chips and he's one
of the guests.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
That was cool and yeah, he was super nice, like
we Yeah, he was very easy to talk to and
kept in touch.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And just said for people who don't know his story,
I mean, I think they've had over four thousand kids
now cut fifty lawns for those in need, especially you know,
the elderly and single moms and those kind of things too.
But yeah, so it's something like two hundred thousand lawns,
you know, cut for free, right.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah, So his program encourages the youth to go out
and find homes on behalf of the organization, and after
you hit those fifty yards, Rodney personally travels to those
homes to give them like all new equipment thanks to
donations that are made to his to his nonprofit. And
so yeah, we meet up and again, like I'm trying
(09:16):
to carve my own niche right back to the point
of not trying to compete, but find our own way
and look at ways that we can partner, because I
think that's the only way that.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
We could build.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
There's a lot of there's a lot of them lawns
to be mode. It's obviously an evergreen industry, no pun intended.
And so yeah, no, I we had a chance to
meet up a couple more times, and I proposed to
him the idea of integrating his network of helpers, obviously
with the parents consent, the parents contact information, and we
(09:51):
were able to bulk upload over six hundred seven hundred
profiles of active helpers from his network directly in our platform,
so that individuals that are coming to our website now
can potentially be linked up. And we made some successful
connections as a result of this partnership.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
So I presume in the past, like when one of
the kids with a fifty yard challenge, either through their
personal connections they found lawns or I'm sure often it's
them posting on social media and people find it in
their town.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
But if we're another channel that is expanding that net
to help get them more lawns in order to reach.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Their goals quicker, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
So yeah, Ronnie, he actually I was able to get
more recently this past May. My son goes a daycare
and I couldn't. Ronnie has like this program called bubble
Mowing Day for kindergartens, and I convinced my daycare to
have a bubble mowing Day. So we had one hundred
kids from like every level come outside, and Ronnie traveled
(10:52):
all the way from Alabama to New Jersey to do
a bubble mowing day in.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
My kid's daycare.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
What's a bubble mowing day?
Speaker 4 (10:58):
So these like.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Little Fisher Price like toy mowers that have like bubbles
come out of it, and so like we just line
them up. It was pretty much like controlled chaos of
kids running around in the playground back with bubbles coming
out of these little Fisher Price toy mowers, doing races
and stuff in circles. And my todler, my son was
there too, like he was helping me. I was a
(11:21):
designated gas man. So Ronnie's like sitting there laughing, and
I'm like in the middle of like thousands.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Of kids saying I need more gas. So I'm like
sitting there like filling.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Up the bubbles. Yeah, but they call the gas.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
So I'm like filling it up with like bubbles and
like these kids mowers and my son started to help me.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
So it was really cute.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
What's the point of it is, You're trying to get
kids to be thinking about how you can serve others
now so that when they're older they could use the real.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, it's a blend of that, and yeah, they each
kid gets a t shirt that they bring home and
it shows like raising men law and care service, so
they they'll wear it at home and their parents might
see it. And so it's almost like a top of
funnel awareness campaign.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Look, you're using marketing words that not everybody's heard top
of funnel, and.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
It's just like internalizing it. So when those kids become
sevent eight years old, they'll think about joining the cause.
I think Rodnie even wrote a book that he's like
giving away to these kids now, one loan at a time.
So yeah, I admire like the platform and the reach
that he's had.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Where do you hope to go from here?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Brian?
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Just continue to innovate, right, Like I've mentioned the the
text messaging and the translation of voicemails, finding ways to
continue to automate and scale as well as build partnerships.
And we have equipment partners that we have, you know,
(13:07):
everything from Milwaukee Tool to Ryobi.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
To Steal that are.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Helping us upgrade active helpers. So continue to nurture those relationships.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Your active volunteers can get new equipment from those suppliers. Yes,
that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, So we have a helper down in Marylands. He's
a Navy veteran. He's been with us for a few years,
and we had a couple of representatives from mid Atlantic
Steel bring like just a whole suite of new equipment
to him with.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Battery power, mower, trimmer, lower chains in a part of it.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
I would love to someday, would love to have, you know,
physical libraries of sorts where people could pick up to
do work.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
They can maybe use for themselves.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But like almost like a I don't know, I haven't
thought about it too deeply, but like a form of
like sweat equity, where could they could either earn it
by doing community service or just doing it and using
it for themselves but then returning it.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
So that's one way.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, you had an interesting point that I read of.
I mean, say, like the average lawnmower is I think
you said, you know twenty eight or twenty nine days
of the month that's not being used at the very least,
I'm sure twenty five or twenty six days of the
month that you know it's not being used. So it's
like people have these things sitting in their garages. There's
got to be interesting ways for other people to use
it for good.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
There is, and you just reminded me about you reminded
me about a funny point that actually inspired a specific
feature of our website. In the early days, people wanted
to not just financially contribute, but donate equipment, mostly operational,
and I said yes. Everything didn't make my wife happy
because it filled up my own garage until I found
(14:58):
the right home for it for a volunteer to take
it on. And so that inspired me to launch a
marketplace on our website similar to Facebook Marketplace. It's called
pay it Forward, so it allows for homeowners to either
lend or donate equipment that our volunteers can exclusively put
to meaningful use. Obviously, the lend part is talking to
(15:21):
the point of a mower that they might not be
able to use twenty eight days out of the time
of the month that someone else could be using in
that vicinity.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
A street over Uber for long care the.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Poor men's version of Uber. There's lots of like yeah,
poor men's version of that.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Way, their app still isn't like it's actually got a
frustrating for how I'm sure you've experienced this, for how
big of a company they are, Like how many times
there's the pickup point is there's a disconnection between what
it shows on your phone and the driver. So it's
like even ubers not figured this out perfectly yet.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Yeah, lots of work to be done.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, do you have favorite stories either of you know,
it could be both of you being able to serve
somebody or you know, or a volunteer who's told you
their story.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Got a couple of good ones that I know of directly.
One is.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
We had the opportunity to mold the lawn of the
sanctuary of a World War Two veteran who stormed the
beaches of Normandy.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
And what do you mean the sanctuary?
Speaker 4 (16:31):
The grounds Okay, where he lives.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Sanctuary. That's amazing. The grounds because you respected this man
so much, his long became a sanctuary.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah, a residence up in northern New Jersey of a
guy named Peter. He lived one hundred and five years old.
So we not myself mostly I was there once, but
a couple of volunteers where they are regularly his lawn
and he actually had owned a riding mower by cub
(17:08):
cadet that after he passed, we attended his funeral because
you know, we you know, built a relationship with him
after he passed. His family donated the cup Cadet riding
mower that I picked up and was able to lug
it down two hours down to Philadelphia to donate to
(17:31):
the groundskeeper of a cemetery primarily made for African Americans
veterans that served like during the Civil War and Buffalo soldiers,
because I was there one time prior and seeing the
grounds keeper literally pushing around to push mower, so it
(17:53):
was like just right before a Veterans Day that I
was able to donate pay it forward a riding mower
from veteran to help the grounds of other sacred grounds.
So that was a fun trip. Another Korean War veteran
that we started helping in the summer of twenty twenty
(18:13):
helped regularly for four years, thankfully to some you know,
local helpers. Ultimately we had a professional landscaping design company
that wanted to give back and this home literally received
like a full yard transformation that we posted to our
YouTube over two hundred thousand subscribers on our YouTube channel,
(18:38):
and we pretty much documented before and after of like
a complete overhaul of the front and back and it
was truly special to see him come down on his
stairwell what's the rail on his on the stairs, And
we pushed him around on his wheelchair and pretty much
(19:01):
saw like a whole new backyard, and that was pretty special.
He hits in his pass, but that was effectively like
a fifteen thousand dollars transformation free of charge on behalf
of the landscaping company. So just glad to be able
to have played a part in that and showing him
that it still exists.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Are you still mowing it all yourself? Or you too
slammed running the hole.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
All the above.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I definitely am not able to do what I was
able to do when I first got started, obviously with
other commitments on the home front, but I'm still very
much involved, like hands on on the back end, getting
around to do things when I can.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
We're even dabbling with It's never going.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
To replace it, but like robot mower companies now want
to give it a test run, so are going to
like more of like a marketing thing, but like bringing
them robot mowers along to like help with.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Doing the lawn.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
We do some of the more trimming. But yeah, no,
I'm still I'm still gonna be on the ground floor
as much as I can when I can.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Because it's a nice workout.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yeah, oh man, let alone what I'm sure it's done
for you spiritually emotionally. I mean, can you speak about
that of what has this done for you as a person?
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Yeah, it definitely.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I mean obviously with my it's just as another layer
of meaning and purpose. Uh, to do what I do
obviously with my with my two kids at home, Like
that's amazing in itself, right, and so like this is
just icing on the cake to do something that could
potentially be a legacy of sorts. And that's like inspiring
(20:45):
to me knowing that you know, it never sat well
with me, like you know, all of us one day
or no longer to be you know, living here, and
it never sat well with me that like will be
forgotten one hundred years from now. So what inspires me
is to do something that outlives me because I know,
(21:07):
like I I was hinting at the fact that, like
as I'm speaking to you now, connections are are being made.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
So I want to leave a legacy. And maybe not
through my nonprofit.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Maybe it's someone that hears us now that does something
even bigger, or maybe it's my son that who's just
internalizing things I'm doing does something.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
That is bigger than himself.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
So maybe it won't be I wanted to mow your
law and that becomes this huge empire.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
But maybe it's just a spark.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I mean, the history books are so small that I
think almost none of us are going to make it
in there. But I mean the legacy of your kids,
like them knowing what you did is incredible and one
an example for them, you know, to hopefully give for
others and not just be selfish and think about themselves.
(21:56):
And obviously the fourteen hundred you know, volunteers that you've
helped inspire to take action. I mean, it's I think
it's silly how we often think about legacy and fame
and all the people that are on TV and stuff,
and they're only what matters. But I mean the beautiful
individual actions that you've taken and your own army of
(22:16):
normal folks that you've built, you know, have taken, is
a legacy that's probably more meaningful for sure.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah, And again, like you see some of these billionaires
starting philanthropists, I'm doing it in reverse.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
It was at a time where I my back was
against the wall and I did something.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
I guess to benefit humanity.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Well, so you know, I'm Catholic, and most Christians have
heard the story of the Widow's Miter, and have you
heard it? So what you've done is more impressive than
what most billionaires have done. So there's the story in
the Bible of you know, these wealthy people come in
and they give you know of money to the church,
you know, but this widow who has almost nothing, gives
(23:04):
almost everything you know to it. And who's given more,
you know, somebody who gives out of their excess or
somebody who gives out of you know, really they don't
have the money to give. And so it's honestly, it's
much more you know, impressive f your level of gift
than than what most billionaires have done in this country.
Like most of them can learn from you and give
(23:26):
a higher percentage or more so, Actually I mean to
give him credit. One I once interviewed Ken Langon, one
of the co founders at Home Depot, and he tells
a great story of he calls his dad and he
brags about a ten million dollar gift that he gave,
and his dad said somewhat like did it actually hurt you?
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Like?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Call me back when you've actually made a gift that
hurts you. And even now, like he's given a lot
to NYU, he's made like a couple hundred million dollars
gifts and he's like a it's a bunch of zeros
in my bank account. I mean, it means nothing, like
it actually hasn't changed my lifestyle in any way whatsoever.
So just like I mean, he's more sacrificially giving than
(24:05):
most you know, billionaires are, and it's still not you know,
like actually touching his life, like what you've done in
both time and money, you know, is much more sacrificial.
And I mean, I think we all need to do that,
and army and normal folks need to do it, and
more billionaires need to do it. And I think it's
a more beautiful way to live. And well that's more
fulfilling too for sure.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Reflecting back helping others help me, and yeah, and again
back to my kids, like I just want them to
know that, just more than anything, Just like my late
father said to me, he just wanted to impart two
things on me, be a good person and find problems
(24:46):
to solutions, find solutions two problems. And yeah, I just
want them to know their dad never gave up on himself.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
One other thing I want to plug is, I know
you're trying to encourage corporations to get involved too, with
you know, their folks being able to do this like
you know, say once a year, you know a company
can have you know, a mowing day and get everyone
out there and what it does for you know, their employees.
And I think you're aware of some studies you know
how it actually helps you know the employees in the
(25:47):
company if you can you know, expand upon that more.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
So yeah, there's there's obviously proven research that and improves
productivity and morale when you enable individuals from companies to
go out and do something for the community. And you know,
we've been actually being able to facilitate some events like
(26:12):
for instance, we work with Keller Williams on their Volunteer
Service Day down in North Carolina, and so yeah, work
with a few other companies and some of them offer.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Grants for volunteer hours that are put in.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
So we've been able to get some grant volunteer for
volunteer hours, like through Motorola and even Google for volunteer
hours that were put in. So yeah, no, it's it's
definitely proven the show like corporate social responsible companies like
(26:52):
are there for a reason.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
You know, it helps boost morale.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Yeah, and even if you know they just start with
one day, a lot of their employees purchase for might
decide to do it on and weekends you know, on
their own there after.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Sure, And that's what you know we're exhibiting. And one
thing we want to again re emphasize is we're not
taking business away from professional landscapers. We're you know, working
with people that generally can't do it themselves or can't
afford it. And that's why I like we exhibit a
landscaping conferences to get more professional landscapers on board because
(27:23):
maybe they might have an extra thirty minutes on their
route to add someone to their to their route that
they can help.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
So, Brian, if somebody wants to contact you, first, can
you share the website and then if you're open to
sharing your email address, we ask folks to do that too.
And it's kind of unique. I think we've maybe the
only podcast that does that, but almost every guest you
know shares their personal contact info. And in case somebody
you know wants to get involved or has questions for you,
and you know, hopefully some good comes out of our
(27:56):
time together today.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yeah, I appreciate that it's w ww dot I want
to owe your lawn dot com.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
You can also do you can also do dot org.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
That one of the many things that we have in
the pipeline is the transition from the dot com to
the dot org. But it's still the same, just so
that it sounds more official as a nonprofit. I know
that many nonprofits are dot com but that was just
the first thing that just worked in the beginning. But
I want to mod your lawn dot com and you
(28:30):
can reach me at Brian b r I a n AT.
I want to moder your lawn dot com.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Do you ever want to do this full time? Have
you thought about if you can scale it enough that
you could?
Speaker 4 (28:42):
I get that question a lot. I would love to
be able to focus on it full.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Time, and especially just more on the marketing and the
creative and finding the right people. If I ever get
enough money to pay a salary, I would rather pay
someone else to be honest, to oversee the operations and
keep it going where I can just be a sounding board.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
But if we have enough, are you.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Just saying that because you're a current eplayer might be listening.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
No, but yeah, no, if the opportunity presents itself somehow,
some way, would love to focus on it full time
because I feel like to be able to do what
we've done with all volunteers just on a charity basis,
and with the limited funds that we have received over time,
I think even more impact could be done. Those ten
(29:37):
thousand might have been able to have been reached with
full dedicated time.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Yeah, and there's three hundred and thirty million people in
the country, so there's way more need out there, aging.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Aging population, rising costs, and the grass is going to
keep growing hopefully.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Yeah. Oh yeah, not on.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Wood anything else you want to cover, Bryan.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
In the very moment.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
No, I mean, I guess we could pay tribute to
your wife for allowing you to do this.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Thank you to my wife.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Thank you to both of our moms just helping out
on times where at.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
The Graham's helping right now, so well you can be
here with us.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, yes, grandma's helping. We have well, it's very early projects.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
You might.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I think you've heard about that Walden Media is potentially building.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah, talk about it a film. If you can't talk
about it, yeah I can.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
I can give you the general public. It's on Deadline,
it's on IMDb.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, tell us about it.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
So it was actually in twenty twenty two that I had.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Posted to my LinkedIn network. Well, no, it was actually
twenty twenty one. I had posted to my LinkedIn network
that it's gonna be on the jew Barrymore Show. And
I think some of my network took notice of that
and just followed the journey since then. And it was
like a year later that I made more public that
(31:15):
had a panic attack. Actually din't speak about like weeks
after getting the layoff, just like everything happening all at once,
Like it was actually my wife that brought me to
the hospital, and it was funny because like a month
later she'd be the one I'd be driving. And so
like I told everyone about like mental health and reflecting
(31:36):
back how others helped me. And I showed like a
before picture with me at the hospital, and then then
after picture of like a clip. I think it was
like I'm in the Washington Post or Fox News or something,
and I guess who this one producer named Sam, like
(31:56):
continue to follow and it was that it was the
summer of twenty twenty. It was the summer twenty twenty two.
We had a segment come out on USA Today, and
this producer messaged me and we got a chance to
connect and speak about like the whole experience, and then
like twenty minutes into our conversation, he's like, I think
(32:19):
you have like the story about a movie. And I
was talking to him about like the scenario with my
father battling his terminal illness. And two years later, ultimately, yeah,
like pretty much sold life rights to Wolden Media to.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Did they just reach out to you cold.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Sam the producer had reached out and he like joined
up forces with a co producer named Adam, and they.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Brought the story.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
The synopsis of it is kind of more on the
family side and not so much the long hair, like
the some of aspects of like the struggles, like the
mental health aspect and the relationship with my father, And
they brought it to Walden Media that they purchased the
(33:14):
life rights too. Pretty much come up with a film.
The supposed proposed title is Grassroots. And you know they've
produced some pretty interest some pretty good films.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Yeah, for people that don't know, I mean, they've done
Lion Witch and the Wardrobe Holes amazing grace. I mean,
you may know of some other titles.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Chronicles of Narnia they were a part of and Ray.
It's just surreal to have that conversation right now.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I never when I started, when I got laid off
and decided to just mole on and keep busy, and
never thought it'd become a possible feature film movie.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
That did Charlotte's Web two, I just thought about yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
And Flinch with Tom Hanks still early stages, like it's
there's many moving parts in order for it to actually
go into production. But the fact that we're even having
that conversation is just surreal because there's so many other
stories and individuals and organizations that are deserving of a film,
(34:19):
nonetheless media coverage. So I'm just I'm truly grateful and
humbled and honored and just along for the ride. Hopefully
it inspires others. It's a message of resilience and community.
We're in early stages, like speaking to some screenwriters right
(34:39):
now just to get the right script.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
But that's where we are.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
That's awesome, you know. And our host coach Bill Corney,
happened to get his story told and undefeated, and he
had a very similar sentiment to what you just said.
I'm a guy whose story just happened to be told,
and there's millions of others out there who also deserve
to have their stories told. And we shouldn't do to
have our stories told, because most of us won't have
our stories told. But the greatest story is what it
(35:05):
does for us, you know. And it Spill always says
you get a thousand times more out of it than
you ever put into it, And you know, that's the
greatest story. But if yours happens to get told and
it helps more people, that's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Yeah, it's pretty cool, all right.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
So, Brian, you just dropped on us late in the
story about having the panitic attack, you know, early on,
you know, after losing your job, and you know, it
makes it even more humble that you didn't share it
and you were kind of downplaying your struggles. You know,
we were talking about it, you know originally, But now
(35:41):
that you've said it, can you bring the audience more
into into it and what was going on?
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Yeah, So it was early June when I did lose
my job, and I was soon after I just that's
when I decided to do like the community service projects.
But it wasn't all like just smooth sailing, right. I
didn't just get right into just bowing everyone's lawns. I
was actually doing some other things along the way to
keep myself busy, my psyche. I took on instacart, gigs,
(36:10):
delivering groceries. I even attempted to do like print on demand,
e commerce design products, writing blogs and articles, none of
which was giving a whole lot of meaning and purpose.
And I think it was towards the tail end of June,
three weeks later after the layoff, where that was when
everything just started to really hit me that we were
(36:34):
going into the mortgage for barons. I was slated to
collect unemployment, thinking about how everyone's working from home and
I'm now competing with not just with people locally, but
people everywhere for jobs that you know, trying to recuperate
that income.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
And I'm just.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Sitting outside on my patio and I start to feel
like this like pain in my chest that I haven't
felt before.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
Mind you, I might have.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
I think I've had only like a handful of like
semi anxiety attacks over the last prior ten years where
I had to like breathe into a bag to calm
myself down. But this was different, Like I literally felt
physical pain and it felt as if I was having
a heart attack for sure, and my wife, you know,
eight months pregnant, brought me to the hospital to get
(37:25):
checked that I IVY hooked up and EKG and monitors
and wires, and ultimately it was decided it was just
a bad panic attack and it gave me some meds
to calm me down. And that was an important part
where you know, I had wires hooked up to me,
and I realized there that I had to start taking
(37:47):
care of myself or else I can't take care of
anyone else. And it was there when I decided to
really dig in on this mowing concept and keep myself
busy and focus just on family and keep things cool
and not get too stressed out.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
And so I mean after that attack, like how worried
were you, you know, by yourself, or how worried was
your wife?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
All the above, and so yeah, I mean they were
just you know, I surrounded myself with family and I
think continue to doing the mowing thing and staying active
and get just getting to the sun and just eating right,
not drinking too much caffeine, did some more like you know, juicing,
(38:35):
eating healthy. It was important because that was a scary
time for sure, and hindsight thinking back to like when
I brought my wife to the hospital a month later,
I haven't had that feeling since, so I think everything
that I might have had done helped me. But yeah,
(38:57):
the mental health was definitely a fact for sure, So
getting out there helped me.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
It's you guys have helped two thousand people, but this
is also you know, really.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
Helped you helping others save my life.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
It's almost like, you know, the name is I want
to mow my lawn or I want to mowe your lawn,
but it's also I want to help myself.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
It's been a form of therapy for sure. Yeah, gardening
in itself is an active thing. It should be on
Apple Watch like gardening and landscaping as an activity. But yeah,
it's therapeutic.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Well thanks for sharing that, Brian. I know it's probably
hard to share, but I wish more people shared. There's
stories like that too. There's a great quote I always think
about from Deetrich Bonhoeffer, whose story we told on the show,
and he said, the problem with Christians that they're lonely
with their sins, whereas the centers of the bar have
so much more fellowship with each other because they share everything.
(39:59):
And so obviously that's not you know, not just have
to be a Christian to relate to that, but just
the idea of so many of us hold these things
within ourselves, you know, and feel lonely because of it,
but it also deprives other people who are going through this.
You just feel like, hey, I'm the only one experience
this and I'm alone, And no, there's lots of other
people experience this, and this story also shows you can
get over it, and you know, and service is one
(40:21):
of the best ways to heal from it. Absolutely, thanks
for being here, Brian. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
Thank you, really appreciate the time. It's really cool. I
I really appreciate.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Everything, And thank you for joining us this week. If
Brian Schwartz has inspired you in general, or better yet,
to take action by signing up to become a volunteer
with I want to mow your lawn, getting your company
(40:51):
to do a service day with them, donating to them,
or something else entirely, please let me know I'd love
to hear about it. You can write me anytime at
Bill at normalfolks dot us, and I promise I will respond.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends
and on social Subscribe to the podcast, rate it, review it,
(41:13):
Join the Army at normalfolks dot us. Consider becoming a
Premium member. There any and all of these things that
will help us grow an army and normal folks. I'm
Bill Courtney. Until next time, do what you can
Hey, everybody, it's still Courtney with an army and normal folks.
And we continue now a part two of Alex's conversation
with Brian Schwartz right after these brief messages from our
general sponsors.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
One of the things you just said is that neighbors
reaching out. That's interesting, Like I wouldn't have thought about that,
Like why are I mean, I can kind of guess,
but tell me why neighbors are reaching out being grateful
to you guys.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Well, it's a broad aspect, right, It's a blend of
both neighbors reaching out on behalf of their home, on
their neighbors who could use the help. Obviously, we want
to speak with the homeowners directly for a myriad of
reasons to get their permission, because it helps the overall
(01:06):
neighborhood look good, because maybe that neighbor is trying to
sell their property, but they don't make that sale because
the neighborhood isn't looking pretty right. But at the same time,
also on premise, I've literally seen like neighbors walk out
of the door or look over the fence saying thank
you for doing that, like they've been having some trouble.
(01:27):
So it's multifaceted. And that speaks to the point of
going back, going back to August of twenty twenty, at
a time when I wasn't even thinking about creating a nonprofit,
there was this perfect stranger, this woman in New York
named Sloan who sent a snail mail air like a
(01:49):
letter in the mail that said, I saw the story
about you. And again, this was a person that I
was not ever. We didn't help her with lawns, but
I guess it was a time when she needed to
hear or see something. I didn't know what she was
going through. I didn't know this person. She wrote me
a letter saying, dear Brian, I saw the story about
(02:11):
you mowing lawns. It gave me some hope and inspiration.
And then she went on to say I once saw
on a T shirt be the reason someone believes in
the goodness of people, and she left it off with
you are that reason, sir, and that it made me
cry and it was something that I needed to hear
in that moment. It made me feel valued, like I
(02:32):
was doing something meaningful, and I wanted to scale up
that feeling right like realizing I'm onto something just bigger
than myself. Now, that changed my whole mindset from doing
something to keeping me busy until I figure out the
next app, to finding meaning and purpose in something, and
that's why I keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
One thing, with the gap of ten thousand requests two
thousand people, you have a really fun line of like,
there's always people out there that probably hate me.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
So there's a bunch of mechanisms I've put in place,
including simple things like auto responder on all of our
social media platforms and even some of the emails that
we have set up just to at least confirm that
we have received their message. I tried in the in
the beginning to respond to every request, even on social media.
(03:28):
Now I think I I probably have a pretty big
backlog on our Facebook page, and I feel bad that
I have not been able to get around to everyone.
We do what we can when we can, and I yeah,
I've I've definitely lost sleep over the fact that I
haven't been able to help everyone that has reached out,
(03:49):
and so we just try to celebrate the wins.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
One thing I would say one of the reasons I
wanted to bring it up is I think almost every
Army member you know, member of our army and normal
folks and people listening right now should sign up, you know,
with you guys as a volunteer, and you know some
you know we'll have more time and you know they
can start getting rolling on it now. But part of
what I was thinking when I was preparing for the
(04:14):
interview last night is even if you just sign up
and then you get this ding of hey, somebody around
me needs help, I think you're more likely to go
do it then. But even if you're not, like planning
to do it the next week or so, I just
happened to hear that, hey there's a guy three miles
from me who could use the help, you're likely going
to do.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
It, right, and we serve as like instead of going
I know there's people that are eager to help, and
we make those connections a bit more comfortable, instead of
going door to door. Right like, we're handling everything from
A to Z from fielding and vetting those inquiries before
they even get passed along, and those those volunteers, even
(04:53):
it's one time a year, it makes a difference. Like
that's the benefit of volunteering with us, Like there's no
we haven't any contracts or commitments and even if you
get that lead that might be three miles away, you can.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
You can decline it.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
There's no hard feelings, there's no offense taken because we're
also not shared like until like both parties like agree,
like we're not sharing that contact information, so you're just
getting a general idea of a profile of a home
and the situation. And then if someone sees a volunteer
listen on our website, they just see the general information.
(05:29):
So we also try to like be that barrier of
like safety, security, comfortability, and flexibility.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So other people are now using your platform. I think
it'd like tell me about the partnership with our friend
Rodney Smith. So Rodney was episode like four or five
in the podcast, super early on and raising men and
women long care. For people who haven't heard his episode,
it's an amazing one and he's honestly one of the
(05:57):
most humble and genuine human beings I've ever or you know,
met in my life. And obviously one of our listeners
I need to pull up the email before the end
here to one of our listeners recommended that we interview you,
and I thought about you know, Rodney originally you know
out the Gate and thank you to hey, like you
guys are doing similar stuff, Like I was curious and
(06:17):
then when I saw your website, do you have a partnership
with them? Like that is amazing because so many people
would just want to be competitors and not partner with
an organization that's similar. But tell me about your whole
Rodney story.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
For sure, and and to just right out the gates,
I want to say, not in not a and not
a wanting to compete, but collaborate, right, Like there's that
saying where it's like one plus one equals eleven.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And so it was actually like in the early days
when I didn't know about Rodney Smith, and maybe like
I subconsciously had in the past had saw something about
like kids doing that, and then maybe that's what was
subconsciously made me decide to mow lawns of all things.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
For people who don't know tell him a little bit
about Rodney's story.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Yeah, So it was.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
In the early stages when I first got started, I
didn't know much about Rodney. I might have subconsciously had
seen some kids that were doing loans for elderly back
in the day, and that might have like stuck with me,
which might have been a part of reason why I
got started, but I had no idea about his organization,
and it was actually I received an email when things
(07:34):
started to pick up and went like viral in a
sense online saying you should reach out to Rodney Smith.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
He does something similar.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So I researched him and I saw here like a
tremendous following, and we actually I reached out to him
and ultimately when he was passing through New Jersey, we
had a chance.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
To one of his fifty.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
One of his fifty state tours.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
He was passing through New Jersey and we did an
opportu and need to collaborate on one of my the
homes that I had dated ten Neck, New Jersey and
just had chances just talk about what the nonprofits like
and asked him for some tips, got a video and
some photos together. He gave me his laze potato chips
(08:17):
that he had branded with his name on it. Yeah,
he's like his face on the laze potato chips.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Oh yeah, like Freedom Lay I think did a year
they put like heroes on some chips and he's one
of the guests.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
That was cool and yeah, he was super nice, like
we Yeah, he was very easy to talk to and
kept in touch.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And just said for people who don't know his story,
I mean, I think they've had over four thousand kids
now cut fifty lawns for those in need, especially you know,
the elderly and single moms and those kind of things too.
But yeah, so it's something like two hundred thousand lawns,
you know, cut for free, right.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah, So his program encourages the youth to go out
and find homes on behalf of the organization, and after
you hit those fifty yards, Rodney personally travels to those
homes to give them like all new equipment thanks to
donations that are made to his to his nonprofit. And
so yeah, we meet up and again, like I'm trying
(09:16):
to carve my own niche right back to the point
of not trying to compete, but find our own way
and look at ways that we can partner, because I
think that's the only way that.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
We could build.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
There's a lot of there's a lot of them lawns
to be mode. It's obviously an evergreen industry, no pun intended.
And so yeah, no, I we had a chance to
meet up a couple more times, and I proposed to
him the idea of integrating his network of helpers, obviously
with the parents consent, the parents contact information, and we
(09:51):
were able to bulk upload over six hundred seven hundred
profiles of active helpers from his network directly in our platform,
so that individuals that are coming to our website now
can potentially be linked up. And we made some successful
connections as a result of this partnership.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
So I presume in the past, like when one of
the kids with a fifty yard challenge, either through their
personal connections they found lawns or I'm sure often it's
them posting on social media and people find it in
their town.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
But if we're another channel that is expanding that net
to help get them more lawns in order to reach.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Their goals quicker, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
So yeah, Ronnie, he actually I was able to get
more recently this past May. My son goes a daycare
and I couldn't. Ronnie has like this program called bubble
Mowing Day for kindergartens, and I convinced my daycare to
have a bubble mowing Day. So we had one hundred
kids from like every level come outside, and Ronnie traveled
(10:52):
all the way from Alabama to New Jersey to do
a bubble mowing day in.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
My kid's daycare.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
What's a bubble mowing day?
Speaker 4 (10:58):
So these like.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Little Fisher Price like toy mowers that have like bubbles
come out of it, and so like we just line
them up. It was pretty much like controlled chaos of
kids running around in the playground back with bubbles coming
out of these little Fisher Price toy mowers, doing races
and stuff in circles. And my todler, my son was
there too, like he was helping me. I was a
(11:21):
designated gas man. So Ronnie's like sitting there laughing, and
I'm like in the middle of like thousands.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Of kids saying I need more gas. So I'm like
sitting there like filling.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Up the bubbles. Yeah, but they call the gas.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
So I'm like filling it up with like bubbles and
like these kids mowers and my son started to help me.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
So it was really cute.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
What's the point of it is, You're trying to get
kids to be thinking about how you can serve others
now so that when they're older they could use the real.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, it's a blend of that, and yeah, they each
kid gets a t shirt that they bring home and
it shows like raising men law and care service, so
they they'll wear it at home and their parents might
see it. And so it's almost like a top of
funnel awareness campaign.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Look, you're using marketing words that not everybody's heard top
of funnel, and.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
It's just like internalizing it. So when those kids become
sevent eight years old, they'll think about joining the cause.
I think Rodnie even wrote a book that he's like
giving away to these kids now, one loan at a time.
So yeah, I admire like the platform and the reach
that he's had.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Where do you hope to go from here?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Brian?
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Just continue to innovate, right, Like I've mentioned the the
text messaging and the translation of voicemails, finding ways to
continue to automate and scale as well as build partnerships.
And we have equipment partners that we have, you know,
(13:07):
everything from Milwaukee Tool to Ryobi.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
To Steal that are.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Helping us upgrade active helpers. So continue to nurture those relationships.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Your active volunteers can get new equipment from those suppliers. Yes,
that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, So we have a helper down in Marylands. He's
a Navy veteran. He's been with us for a few years,
and we had a couple of representatives from mid Atlantic
Steel bring like just a whole suite of new equipment
to him with.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Battery power, mower, trimmer, lower chains in a part of it.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
I would love to someday, would love to have, you know,
physical libraries of sorts where people could pick up to
do work.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
They can maybe use for themselves.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But like almost like a I don't know, I haven't
thought about it too deeply, but like a form of
like sweat equity, where could they could either earn it
by doing community service or just doing it and using
it for themselves but then returning it.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
So that's one way.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, you had an interesting point that I read of.
I mean, say, like the average lawnmower is I think
you said, you know twenty eight or twenty nine days
of the month that's not being used at the very least,
I'm sure twenty five or twenty six days of the
month that you know it's not being used. So it's
like people have these things sitting in their garages. There's
got to be interesting ways for other people to use
it for good.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
There is, and you just reminded me about you reminded
me about a funny point that actually inspired a specific
feature of our website. In the early days, people wanted
to not just financially contribute, but donate equipment, mostly operational,
and I said yes. Everything didn't make my wife happy
because it filled up my own garage until I found
(14:58):
the right home for it for a volunteer to take
it on. And so that inspired me to launch a
marketplace on our website similar to Facebook Marketplace. It's called
pay it Forward, so it allows for homeowners to either
lend or donate equipment that our volunteers can exclusively put
to meaningful use. Obviously, the lend part is talking to
(15:21):
the point of a mower that they might not be
able to use twenty eight days out of the time
of the month that someone else could be using in
that vicinity.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
A street over Uber for long care the.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Poor men's version of Uber. There's lots of like yeah,
poor men's version of that.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Way, their app still isn't like it's actually got a
frustrating for how I'm sure you've experienced this, for how
big of a company they are, Like how many times
there's the pickup point is there's a disconnection between what
it shows on your phone and the driver. So it's
like even ubers not figured this out perfectly yet.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Yeah, lots of work to be done.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, do you have favorite stories either of you know,
it could be both of you being able to serve
somebody or you know, or a volunteer who's told you
their story.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Got a couple of good ones that I know of directly.
One is.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
We had the opportunity to mold the lawn of the
sanctuary of a World War Two veteran who stormed the
beaches of Normandy.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
And what do you mean the sanctuary?
Speaker 4 (16:31):
The grounds Okay, where he lives.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Sanctuary. That's amazing. The grounds because you respected this man
so much, his long became a sanctuary.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah, a residence up in northern New Jersey of a
guy named Peter. He lived one hundred and five years old.
So we not myself mostly I was there once, but
a couple of volunteers where they are regularly his lawn
and he actually had owned a riding mower by cub
(17:08):
cadet that after he passed, we attended his funeral because
you know, we you know, built a relationship with him
after he passed. His family donated the cup Cadet riding
mower that I picked up and was able to lug
it down two hours down to Philadelphia to donate to
(17:31):
the groundskeeper of a cemetery primarily made for African Americans
veterans that served like during the Civil War and Buffalo soldiers,
because I was there one time prior and seeing the
grounds keeper literally pushing around to push mower, so it
(17:53):
was like just right before a Veterans Day that I
was able to donate pay it forward a riding mower
from veteran to help the grounds of other sacred grounds.
So that was a fun trip. Another Korean War veteran
that we started helping in the summer of twenty twenty
(18:13):
helped regularly for four years, thankfully to some you know,
local helpers. Ultimately we had a professional landscaping design company
that wanted to give back and this home literally received
like a full yard transformation that we posted to our
YouTube over two hundred thousand subscribers on our YouTube channel,
(18:38):
and we pretty much documented before and after of like
a complete overhaul of the front and back and it
was truly special to see him come down on his
stairwell what's the rail on his on the stairs, And
we pushed him around on his wheelchair and pretty much
(19:01):
saw like a whole new backyard, and that was pretty special.
He hits in his pass, but that was effectively like
a fifteen thousand dollars transformation free of charge on behalf
of the landscaping company. So just glad to be able
to have played a part in that and showing him
that it still exists.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Are you still mowing it all yourself? Or you too
slammed running the hole.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
All the above.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I definitely am not able to do what I was
able to do when I first got started, obviously with
other commitments on the home front, but I'm still very
much involved, like hands on on the back end, getting
around to do things when I can.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
We're even dabbling with It's never going.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
To replace it, but like robot mower companies now want
to give it a test run, so are going to
like more of like a marketing thing, but like bringing
them robot mowers along to like help with.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Doing the lawn.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
We do some of the more trimming. But yeah, no,
I'm still I'm still gonna be on the ground floor
as much as I can when I can.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Because it's a nice workout.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yeah, oh man, let alone what I'm sure it's done
for you spiritually emotionally. I mean, can you speak about
that of what has this done for you as a person?
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Yeah, it definitely.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I mean obviously with my it's just as another layer
of meaning and purpose. Uh, to do what I do
obviously with my with my two kids at home, Like
that's amazing in itself, right, and so like this is
just icing on the cake to do something that could
potentially be a legacy of sorts. And that's like inspiring
(20:45):
to me knowing that you know, it never sat well
with me, like you know, all of us one day
or no longer to be you know, living here, and
it never sat well with me that like will be
forgotten one hundred years from now. So what inspires me
is to do something that outlives me because I know,
(21:07):
like I I was hinting at the fact that, like
as I'm speaking to you now, connections are are being made.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
So I want to leave a legacy. And maybe not
through my nonprofit.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Maybe it's someone that hears us now that does something
even bigger, or maybe it's my son that who's just
internalizing things I'm doing does something.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
That is bigger than himself.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
So maybe it won't be I wanted to mow your
law and that becomes this huge empire.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
But maybe it's just a spark.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I mean, the history books are so small that I
think almost none of us are going to make it
in there. But I mean the legacy of your kids,
like them knowing what you did is incredible and one
an example for them, you know, to hopefully give for
others and not just be selfish and think about themselves.
(21:56):
And obviously the fourteen hundred you know, volunteers that you've
helped inspire to take action. I mean, it's I think
it's silly how we often think about legacy and fame
and all the people that are on TV and stuff,
and they're only what matters. But I mean the beautiful
individual actions that you've taken and your own army of
(22:16):
normal folks that you've built, you know, have taken, is
a legacy that's probably more meaningful for sure.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah, And again, like you see some of these billionaires
starting philanthropists, I'm doing it in reverse.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
It was at a time where I my back was
against the wall and I did something.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
I guess to benefit humanity.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Well, so you know, I'm Catholic, and most Christians have
heard the story of the Widow's Miter, and have you
heard it? So what you've done is more impressive than
what most billionaires have done. So there's the story in
the Bible of you know, these wealthy people come in
and they give you know of money to the church,
you know, but this widow who has almost nothing, gives
(23:04):
almost everything you know to it. And who's given more,
you know, somebody who gives out of their excess or
somebody who gives out of you know, really they don't
have the money to give. And so it's honestly, it's
much more you know, impressive f your level of gift
than than what most billionaires have done in this country.
Like most of them can learn from you and give
(23:26):
a higher percentage or more so, Actually I mean to
give him credit. One I once interviewed Ken Langon, one
of the co founders at Home Depot, and he tells
a great story of he calls his dad and he
brags about a ten million dollar gift that he gave,
and his dad said somewhat like did it actually hurt you?
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Like?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Call me back when you've actually made a gift that
hurts you. And even now, like he's given a lot
to NYU, he's made like a couple hundred million dollars
gifts and he's like a it's a bunch of zeros
in my bank account. I mean, it means nothing, like
it actually hasn't changed my lifestyle in any way whatsoever.
So just like I mean, he's more sacrificially giving than
(24:05):
most you know, billionaires are, and it's still not you know,
like actually touching his life, like what you've done in
both time and money, you know, is much more sacrificial.
And I mean, I think we all need to do that,
and army and normal folks need to do it, and
more billionaires need to do it. And I think it's
a more beautiful way to live. And well that's more
fulfilling too for sure.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Reflecting back helping others help me, and yeah, and again
back to my kids, like I just want them to
know that, just more than anything, Just like my late
father said to me, he just wanted to impart two
things on me, be a good person and find problems
(24:46):
to solutions, find solutions two problems. And yeah, I just
want them to know their dad never gave up on himself.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
One other thing I want to plug is, I know
you're trying to encourage corporations to get involved too, with
you know, their folks being able to do this like
you know, say once a year, you know a company
can have you know, a mowing day and get everyone
out there and what it does for you know, their employees.
And I think you're aware of some studies you know
how it actually helps you know the employees in the
(25:47):
company if you can you know, expand upon that more.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
So yeah, there's there's obviously proven research that and improves
productivity and morale when you enable individuals from companies to
go out and do something for the community. And you know,
we've been actually being able to facilitate some events like
(26:12):
for instance, we work with Keller Williams on their Volunteer
Service Day down in North Carolina, and so yeah, work
with a few other companies and some of them offer.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Grants for volunteer hours that are put in.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
So we've been able to get some grant volunteer for
volunteer hours, like through Motorola and even Google for volunteer
hours that were put in. So yeah, no, it's it's
definitely proven the show like corporate social responsible companies like
(26:52):
are there for a reason.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
You know, it helps boost morale.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Yeah, and even if you know they just start with
one day, a lot of their employees purchase for might
decide to do it on and weekends you know, on
their own there after.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Sure, And that's what you know we're exhibiting. And one
thing we want to again re emphasize is we're not
taking business away from professional landscapers. We're you know, working
with people that generally can't do it themselves or can't
afford it. And that's why I like we exhibit a
landscaping conferences to get more professional landscapers on board because
(27:23):
maybe they might have an extra thirty minutes on their
route to add someone to their to their route that
they can help.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
So, Brian, if somebody wants to contact you, first, can
you share the website and then if you're open to
sharing your email address, we ask folks to do that too.
And it's kind of unique. I think we've maybe the
only podcast that does that, but almost every guest you
know shares their personal contact info. And in case somebody
you know wants to get involved or has questions for you,
and you know, hopefully some good comes out of our
(27:56):
time together today.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yeah, I appreciate that it's w ww dot I want
to owe your lawn dot com.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
You can also do you can also do dot org.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
That one of the many things that we have in
the pipeline is the transition from the dot com to
the dot org. But it's still the same, just so
that it sounds more official as a nonprofit. I know
that many nonprofits are dot com but that was just
the first thing that just worked in the beginning. But
I want to mod your lawn dot com and you
(28:30):
can reach me at Brian b r I a n AT.
I want to moder your lawn dot com.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Do you ever want to do this full time? Have
you thought about if you can scale it enough that
you could?
Speaker 4 (28:42):
I get that question a lot. I would love to
be able to focus on it full.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Time, and especially just more on the marketing and the
creative and finding the right people. If I ever get
enough money to pay a salary, I would rather pay
someone else to be honest, to oversee the operations and
keep it going where I can just be a sounding board.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
But if we have enough, are you.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Just saying that because you're a current eplayer might be listening.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
No, but yeah, no, if the opportunity presents itself somehow,
some way, would love to focus on it full time
because I feel like to be able to do what
we've done with all volunteers just on a charity basis,
and with the limited funds that we have received over time,
I think even more impact could be done. Those ten
(29:37):
thousand might have been able to have been reached with
full dedicated time.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Yeah, and there's three hundred and thirty million people in
the country, so there's way more need out there, aging.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Aging population, rising costs, and the grass is going to
keep growing hopefully.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Yeah. Oh yeah, not on.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Wood anything else you want to cover, Bryan.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
In the very moment.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
No, I mean, I guess we could pay tribute to
your wife for allowing you to do this.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Thank you to my wife.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Thank you to both of our moms just helping out
on times where at.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
The Graham's helping right now, so well you can be
here with us.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, yes, grandma's helping. We have well, it's very early projects.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
You might.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I think you've heard about that Walden Media is potentially building.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah, talk about it a film. If you can't talk
about it, yeah I can.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
I can give you the general public. It's on Deadline,
it's on IMDb.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, tell us about it.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
So it was actually in twenty twenty two that I had.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Posted to my LinkedIn network. Well, no, it was actually
twenty twenty one. I had posted to my LinkedIn network
that it's gonna be on the jew Barrymore Show. And
I think some of my network took notice of that
and just followed the journey since then. And it was
like a year later that I made more public that
(31:15):
had a panic attack. Actually din't speak about like weeks
after getting the layoff, just like everything happening all at once,
Like it was actually my wife that brought me to
the hospital, and it was funny because like a month
later she'd be the one I'd be driving. And so
like I told everyone about like mental health and reflecting
(31:36):
back how others helped me. And I showed like a
before picture with me at the hospital, and then then
after picture of like a clip. I think it was
like I'm in the Washington Post or Fox News or something,
and I guess who this one producer named Sam, like
(31:56):
continue to follow and it was that it was the
summer of twenty twenty. It was the summer twenty twenty two.
We had a segment come out on USA Today, and
this producer messaged me and we got a chance to
connect and speak about like the whole experience, and then
like twenty minutes into our conversation, he's like, I think
(32:19):
you have like the story about a movie. And I
was talking to him about like the scenario with my
father battling his terminal illness. And two years later, ultimately, yeah,
like pretty much sold life rights to Wolden Media to.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Did they just reach out to you cold.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Sam the producer had reached out and he like joined
up forces with a co producer named Adam, and they.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Brought the story.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
The synopsis of it is kind of more on the
family side and not so much the long hair, like
the some of aspects of like the struggles, like the
mental health aspect and the relationship with my father, And
they brought it to Walden Media that they purchased the
(33:14):
life rights too. Pretty much come up with a film.
The supposed proposed title is Grassroots. And you know they've
produced some pretty interest some pretty good films.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Yeah, for people that don't know, I mean, they've done
Lion Witch and the Wardrobe Holes amazing grace. I mean,
you may know of some other titles.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Chronicles of Narnia they were a part of and Ray.
It's just surreal to have that conversation right now.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I never when I started, when I got laid off
and decided to just mole on and keep busy, and
never thought it'd become a possible feature film movie.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
That did Charlotte's Web two, I just thought about yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
And Flinch with Tom Hanks still early stages, like it's
there's many moving parts in order for it to actually
go into production. But the fact that we're even having
that conversation is just surreal because there's so many other
stories and individuals and organizations that are deserving of a film,
(34:19):
nonetheless media coverage. So I'm just I'm truly grateful and
humbled and honored and just along for the ride. Hopefully
it inspires others. It's a message of resilience and community.
We're in early stages, like speaking to some screenwriters right
(34:39):
now just to get the right script.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
But that's where we are.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
That's awesome, you know. And our host coach Bill Corney,
happened to get his story told and undefeated, and he
had a very similar sentiment to what you just said.
I'm a guy whose story just happened to be told,
and there's millions of others out there who also deserve
to have their stories told. And we shouldn't do to
have our stories told, because most of us won't have
our stories told. But the greatest story is what it
(35:05):
does for us, you know. And it Spill always says
you get a thousand times more out of it than
you ever put into it, And you know, that's the
greatest story. But if yours happens to get told and
it helps more people, that's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Yeah, it's pretty cool, all right.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
So, Brian, you just dropped on us late in the
story about having the panitic attack, you know, early on,
you know, after losing your job, and you know, it
makes it even more humble that you didn't share it
and you were kind of downplaying your struggles. You know,
we were talking about it, you know originally, But now
(35:41):
that you've said it, can you bring the audience more
into into it and what was going on?
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Yeah, So it was early June when I did lose
my job, and I was soon after I just that's
when I decided to do like the community service projects.
But it wasn't all like just smooth sailing, right. I
didn't just get right into just bowing everyone's lawns. I
was actually doing some other things along the way to
keep myself busy, my psyche. I took on instacart, gigs,
(36:10):
delivering groceries. I even attempted to do like print on demand,
e commerce design products, writing blogs and articles, none of
which was giving a whole lot of meaning and purpose.
And I think it was towards the tail end of June,
three weeks later after the layoff, where that was when
everything just started to really hit me that we were
(36:34):
going into the mortgage for barons. I was slated to
collect unemployment, thinking about how everyone's working from home and
I'm now competing with not just with people locally, but
people everywhere for jobs that you know, trying to recuperate
that income.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
And I'm just.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Sitting outside on my patio and I start to feel
like this like pain in my chest that I haven't
felt before.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
Mind you, I might have.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
I think I've had only like a handful of like
semi anxiety attacks over the last prior ten years where
I had to like breathe into a bag to calm
myself down. But this was different, Like I literally felt
physical pain and it felt as if I was having
a heart attack for sure, and my wife, you know,
eight months pregnant, brought me to the hospital to get
(37:25):
checked that I IVY hooked up and EKG and monitors
and wires, and ultimately it was decided it was just
a bad panic attack and it gave me some meds
to calm me down. And that was an important part
where you know, I had wires hooked up to me,
and I realized there that I had to start taking
(37:47):
care of myself or else I can't take care of
anyone else. And it was there when I decided to
really dig in on this mowing concept and keep myself
busy and focus just on family and keep things cool
and not get too stressed out.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
And so I mean after that attack, like how worried
were you, you know, by yourself, or how worried was
your wife?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
All the above, and so yeah, I mean they were
just you know, I surrounded myself with family and I
think continue to doing the mowing thing and staying active
and get just getting to the sun and just eating right,
not drinking too much caffeine, did some more like you know, juicing,
(38:35):
eating healthy. It was important because that was a scary
time for sure, and hindsight thinking back to like when
I brought my wife to the hospital a month later,
I haven't had that feeling since, so I think everything
that I might have had done helped me. But yeah,
(38:57):
the mental health was definitely a fact for sure, So
getting out there helped me.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
It's you guys have helped two thousand people, but this
is also you know, really.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
Helped you helping others save my life.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
It's almost like, you know, the name is I want
to mow my lawn or I want to mowe your lawn,
but it's also I want to help myself.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
It's been a form of therapy for sure. Yeah, gardening
in itself is an active thing. It should be on
Apple Watch like gardening and landscaping as an activity. But yeah,
it's therapeutic.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Well thanks for sharing that, Brian. I know it's probably
hard to share, but I wish more people shared. There's
stories like that too. There's a great quote I always think
about from Deetrich Bonhoeffer, whose story we told on the show,
and he said, the problem with Christians that they're lonely
with their sins, whereas the centers of the bar have
so much more fellowship with each other because they share everything.
(39:59):
And so obviously that's not you know, not just have
to be a Christian to relate to that, but just
the idea of so many of us hold these things
within ourselves, you know, and feel lonely because of it,
but it also deprives other people who are going through this.
You just feel like, hey, I'm the only one experience
this and I'm alone, And no, there's lots of other
people experience this, and this story also shows you can
get over it, and you know, and service is one
(40:21):
of the best ways to heal from it. Absolutely, thanks
for being here, Brian. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
Thank you, really appreciate the time. It's really cool. I
I really appreciate.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Everything, And thank you for joining us this week. If
Brian Schwartz has inspired you in general, or better yet,
to take action by signing up to become a volunteer
with I want to mow your lawn, getting your company
(40:51):
to do a service day with them, donating to them,
or something else entirely, please let me know I'd love
to hear about it. You can write me anytime at
Bill at normalfolks dot us, and I promise I will respond.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends
and on social Subscribe to the podcast, rate it, review it,
(41:13):
Join the Army at normalfolks dot us. Consider becoming a
Premium member. There any and all of these things that
will help us grow an army and normal folks. I'm
Bill Courtney. Until next time, do what you can
Host
Bill Courtney
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