August 22, 2023 • 54 mins
Tiani found herself navigating uncharted territory as a single mother to three children. After struggling for years, she found stability as a real estate agent and felt called to help single mothers like herself, leading her to create Little Miracles. The nonprofit has helped 86 families with home improvements and has inspired an army of over 1,800 volunteers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Do you call her and just say, hey, listen here.
You don't know us, but we'd like to have your
house for a day, and we're going to send you
off somewhere. I mean, I mean, how do you how
DoD you respond to that?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
You know? What?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Be like? Get away from me?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Ironically as crazy as this first one was, and I
was like trying to just just trust me. I don't
know what you know, and I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
What did you say through her?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I said, Hey, I know your friend Jen Davies, and
I'm trying to do this thing I'm starting. It's like,
can I stop buy and talk to you, It'll make
more sense.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I'm over and fold some towels.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Ye, that's kind of weird if you think it really is.
It really is.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur,
and I've been an inner city football coach in Memphis.
And the last part unintentionally led to an oscar for
the film about our team. It's called Undefeated. Guys, I
believe our country's problems will never be solved by a
(01:04):
bunch of fancy people in nice suits talking big words
that nobody understands on CNN and Fox, but rather by
an army of normal folks US just you and me deciding, Hey,
I can help. That's what Tiani Shoemaker Clyde the voice
we just heard is done. Tiani is the founder of
Little Miracles, which, as you might guess, helps single moms
(01:27):
with miracles in their home that are meant to be little,
but every single time they've turned out to be incredibly
meaningful to their moms and their kids and to the
army of volunteers that have made their eighty six miracles happen.
I can't wait for you to hear the story right
after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Tiani actually
(02:04):
played college basketball at BYU and then married the quarterback.
Although this beginning may sound a little fairy tellish, and
it was for a while, the Mormon couple with three
children divorced sadly after ten years, and suddenly Tiani, a
single mom with a fashion merchandising degree that she wasn't
(02:25):
even using, had to figure out how to make it
on her own in Salt Lake City. You're a single mom,
single mom with a fashion merchandising thing going on in
Salt Lake career? Yes, and what do you do to
make ends me? Seriously? Odd jobs? Whatever jobs or not,
(02:47):
I don't know the truth.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, I'm actually kind of proud of this, but I
kept it on the down law. I delivered the Salt
Lake Tribune.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
You did what.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I had a college degree. I could deliver this somehow.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I'm somebody who you delivered papers.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I was like making like fifteen hundred bucks, which I
thought was a ton of money at the time, just
for having a little exercise in the morning. I had
this route of apartment, so I'd fill my little bag
up with paper. I thought it was a great little gig, right.
I didn't need a babysitter. I was up at four
in the morning. I got done.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So I show you were the paper boy girl girl
for a minute.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
We had Actually when I was married too, we'd opened
a salon, a little like a Tannian salon spa. So
I ran that a little bit. But about the time
I got divorced, we sold that.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
And so did you struggle. Oh it's a single mama, kids,
I'll struggle financially.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean, so I got divorced probably like
oh four h five, and I actually found myself pregnant,
not married, had two kids already, no family in Colorado
or in Utah, so we're all mostly in Colorado. And yeah,
my fashion merchandise degree didn't come to help me at all.
(04:01):
Like I was just trying to fig what am I
going to trying to figure out what my life was
going to be at that point, I mean, everything had
gone like my script, I b yu marry the quarter
like I had thought until.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
That, this is a serious audible.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, and I decided to get my real estate license.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Is this why you're throwing newspapers?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
No, we're right out right about the time I was
thinking about it, Yeah, like I can't do this for
very long, right, I mean, this isn't really paying my bills,
you know.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
It was it was you say, I'm gonna get my
real estate. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
The market at that point was doing really well, so
I thought, Okay, all my friends that were doing it were, well, if.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You're getting your if this is around two thousand and
six or seven, you're getting a real estate license right
before the housing crash.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Absolutely, yep, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It was very how'd that work out? So?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
You know, what now looking back was it was great
because you know, when I think about it, and I
don't know for sure how I got through all of that,
just one day at a time, a little by little
by little by little. I mean here I had, I
got my license in O six right right enough to
see the good stuff what it could be, and then
(05:13):
got on with a builder. Thought life's going great, and
then yep, and then found myself in this situation and
like just like that, the market turned, everything crashed. You know,
it was a tough, tough time.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Okay, so fair enough to say you grew up a
normal kid in a really organic, good old fashioned American family,
went to college, You're checking the boxes, doing what you're
supposed to do, get your degree, marry the quarterback, and
then the world kind of falls apart. You found yourself single,
financially struggling, having to feed three miles and did you cry?
(05:54):
There were their nights you cried. Oh yeah, we scared.
I mean scared in terms of I'm not gonna be
able to pay my bills and maybe put.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Out Oh yeah. In fact, my boys remember very well well.
My daughter was a hard baby too, So I mean
that's exhausting. I was dealing with her twenty four to seven.
And you know, but they remember the day I sat
them down and said, you know what, guys, I just
need a little help, and I think we might have
to move to Colorado for just living with my parents
(06:24):
to try to get my feet under me again. And
my oldest said, I don't. I'm not leaving my friends. Friend,
I'll stay with dad and I will just never forget
that moment, because.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Did that shatter you? Well, I just.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Knew it wasn't an option, right, I just knew in
that moment, I'm not leaving my kids. I got to
figure this out. I gotta do whatever I gotta do.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
So my mom and father were divorced when I was four, okay,
and my mom was subsequently married divorced a number of
times after that. She was not a good picker of men.
And I remember if I got straight a's and a
(07:10):
week back then, the grading periods were six weeks, okay,
And if I got straight a's for my six weeks thing,
I got to go to Wendy's. That was like, oh boy,
you know that was a big thing. And you know today,
I mean, it almost seems like a lifetime ago to me.
(07:33):
But it is my reality and it is the reason
that I think the way I do because I remember
that struggle, and that struggle is fearful, and I know
its fearful for my mom, worried about what we were
going to have to do. We also did the grandparent
thing a couple times. But you know, it's also scary
(07:56):
for a kid. Yeah, and they won't often verbalize it
or show it to their parent, But I lived it.
And you don't want to lose your friends. You don't
want to lose whatever house it is you have, and
you really don't even know that you're broke. You just
don't want things to change too much.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, And.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I wonder did you feel that ever?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah? I was always mindful of especially my oldest is
very sensitive, and he knew when I was struggling. He
knew the nights I was crying right and worried and stressed.
And he I still have him. He wrote me all
notes all the time, and you know, said it's okay,
They're going to be okay. You know, And now we
(08:44):
talk about it, and you know, they tell me things
I didn't know probably back then. Tell me one, well,
oh gosh, I mean divorce is just hard to begin with.
I mean they were I didn't know they ever knew.
I cried and had those nights, of course, and my
my son heard, Yeah, he's described him in detail to me,
(09:04):
and I felt so bad, you know. And he went
on a church mission right out of high school, which
is another cultural thing with the Mormon religion. He went
to Madagascar, and as he was leaving and I was,
you know, it's a big deal, he'd kind of, I.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
That's just that's just east of South Africa. I mean,
that's way down.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I knew nothing about this country. I was, you know,
researching it. Obviously, you don't know. You know, that's a
that takes a lot of courage and faith for someone
to you don't know, take off where you're heading, who
you're going to be. You know, it's a kind of
a crazy time. And I was trying to give him
my best pep talk at the time about you know,
(09:47):
just try to love these people and you'll feel like
they'll be your home, they'll be your family, you know.
He said, Mom, you don't have to worry about me.
He said, I've been homesick my whole life. And I said,
it took me a minute and then it kind of
broke my heart a little bit because.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
You know, hang on a second, I've been home, I've
been homesick.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Like, don't worry. I know what homesick feels like, because
you know, their dad was in their life and a
good father. So a lot of women don't have that,
but for a child who's got to go back and forth.
And he would say that as a little boy, when
I'm with you, I miss dad. When I'm with dad,
I miss you, and they can never really come and
get me. You know, that's the reality of divorce. And
(10:34):
half of families are living that way, and a lot
of kids don't get to see their dads, you know,
and that's even harder. But the ones that do, they're
longing for mom. You know, they want that family. So
you know, he's this big six ' five, great, strong kid,
and when you know, kind of broke my heart. But
I also knew that I felt that because they couldn't
(10:57):
fully enjoy Disneyland with dad because I'm not there, and
you know, and I wasn't able to take them on
trips like that. So I'm trying to make it as
fun as I can in my chaotic you know, seeing
the mom life.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Did you feel competition with your ex husband?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
No, I really didn't. A lot do A lot do
and I'm grateful. I don't know, it's a little bit
of my personality. I don't. But my kids did. I
remember they went to Hawaii. He got remarried after a
few years, and they went on some trips, and you know,
they were able to to have a lot of experiences
(11:32):
with their dad that a lot of kids don't because
dads a lot of times take off after the divorce.
But I remember them wanting to show me their video
of Hawaii and all these things they did. And then
he stopped and he said, Mom, I feel bad, you know,
And I was like, oh no, I didn't want him
to feel that way. I truly wasn't. I truly didn't
feel jealous. I was at peace that we just weren't
(11:55):
a good match. We never had a bad, ugly divorce.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
But the point is the kids. But he feel all
that Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I remember feeling that
kind of stuff. And the reason I'm asking about this
is not to try to jerk tears out of you,
but or to make you feel even remotely guilty, because
I know, as a single mom, You've done everything you
(12:18):
can possibly do, because I watched my mom do everything
she could possibly do. But the thing is, with about
a fifty percent divorce right in our country, that's bad
for the adults. But the kids didn't divorce anybody exactly.
They showed up and they're in it, not by any
(12:40):
choice or doing of their own. And it's traumatic for
a child. And then when you take the trauma of
a child having to choose between parents, having to balance
between parents not wanting to hurt one another's parents feelings,
just like you've described being pulled back and forth on
(13:02):
Thanksgiving and Christmas and summer trips and all of that,
that's enough trauma. Or a child with a divorced parent
who doesn't even get to experience anything with the other
parent because other parent abandons them. All of that is
extraordinarily traumatic and formative on a child. And then you
(13:22):
throw in on it economic difficulty, and we wonder why
these children oftentimes grow up with emotional scars.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, oh yeah, you nailed it.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
So I'm trying to paint a picture, and the picture
is kid grows up, good parent, family moves around, goes
to place, high school, and then college ball marries the
quarterback starts to sound out little fairy talish, and just
a few years later you find yourself with three kids
struggling with all kinds of issues, which is unfortunately fairly common, yeah,
(14:09):
I think in our society. And you do start having
a little bit of success with your real estate business.
And now tell me again, you were invited on something
to Brazil. I don't it was a mission, So.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yes, I had. At this point, I had a friend who,
you know, the market crashed. Fortunately I got in with
some really good people that were neighbors I had known
for a long time. We started working like the short
cell foreclosure market pretty hard, and I had a friend
who wanted to He had never invested in real estate,
but wanted to start investing some of the short cells
(14:45):
that we had. So we became really close friends. And
my oldest was struggling at the time. You know, he's
kind of going through puberty. Oh yeah, and he was
just he was a really good kid, but just really
having struggles and depressed. And you know, I thought, you're
the perfect kid, you know how. You know, I was
trying to figure out a way to help him so much.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
It's funny, you're the perfect kid. Well, you know, no, no,
I know, I get it. Yeah, but I mean when
you when you think about all that his emotions and
heart are bearing.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah, of course he was struggling, I know, and I probably,
let me tell you something, realized how.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Much I was. I was a pretty good athlete coming
up and everything else and all that, and I felt
like such a second class citizen because I didn't have
a dad in the games, and and I struggled with
it into my forties. Really oh yeah, yeah, So a
(15:46):
kid going through puberty struggling with it is just not
at all surprising to me. Yeah, but you're dealing.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Didn't understand it at the time what all he was feeling, obviously,
But even though he had a dad, we're also in
a very you know, religious community, was not typical to
have divorce. None of his friends had divorced, and there
was teasing about, you know, and stuff that I probably
didn't understand at the time. And then you add on
(16:15):
the other thing. He's real hard on himself. He's naturally
a very athletic kid and all that, but he just
was really just struggling more than and I didn't know
how to help him. I didn't know how to connect
with him. I would try to tell him to look
for things he could do for other people, and he
genuinely wanted to because he can't. He said, what do
you mean by what do I do? Give someone a ride?
(16:36):
He was thinking about it, but he didn't know what
to do. And so then hear my friend he had
started a company that was very successful MLM business, and
he had created this foundation that was in Brazil and
they had missions is what they called him. They would
send people over to help out in these orphanages and
(16:57):
rebuild schools and do all kinds of things in Brazil.
And I heard all the stories, and he said, why
don't you take him? You guys should go on the
next mission, and I'll pay for it and you go
and it'll be amazing, it'll be wonderful. And I love
the idea, but it sparked an idea in my heart
(17:18):
that said, well, why do these all have to be
in like so far away? I hear about these awesome
humanitarian things and what they do for people's lives, but
how can we do this same How can we have
that same experience here? Because you're nice to offer to
pay for my kids to go it's not cheap to
do that. Most families can't do that. What about all
(17:40):
those other friends of mine, all these single moms, I
know they can't go. I want I want something that
we can connect with people and just be here in
our community.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
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(18:15):
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(19:19):
be right back. So your friend doing the thing of
Brazil plan, it entices you to kind of planet and
(19:41):
it's planted a seed of Yeah, doing something for someone
who's more disadvantaged is great, but you decided you want
to do it on a more local basis.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, it really planted a seed that this felt like
I want something more. I was surviving at that point.
I was I was finally feeling successful in real estate,
and I was grateful to be where I was at.
But I also felt like you know, and there was
even times I couldn't believe some of the checks I
(20:13):
was I didn't think I would ever have a check
worth that, you know, but.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
It it it.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Kind of very quickly became meaningless in a way because
I just felt more busy, I felt more stress I
felt more hustle and worry, and I got to keep
up with the next thing now, and I meanwhile missing
the point, like you know, of life here. I gotta
have something else.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Yeah. So, yeah, you got out of all the stress
that you found yourself in, and it created a whole
another ball of stress, which I think is really normal
for people. I think the older we get our stressor's changed,
but the level of stress didn't necessarily diminish. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Well, when I started tell you the story, this idea
came to me very quickly. You know, the seed was planted,
and the desire was there. I knew there's something I
want to do something. And once I got the idea,
I actually was just talking out loud one day in
my office to another girl, I want to do something
(21:17):
like this. And because my background was real estate and
I enjoyed fixing houses up and I'd done some flips
by then, people would ask me to help them, you know,
and that's that was my gift, you know, that was
my thing I could do. I could go clean up
your house and fix And I was telling her, I
want to do something like this is what we can do,
you know, just our friends. We can clean we can
organize their house, rearrange the front, make it feel good,
(21:40):
fix their kids rooms. And someone overheard me talking who
actually had a local real estate show just on in
Salt Lake, and he was kind of getting board of
the content, just showing houses and stuff, and he said, Hey,
I really like this idea, like let's you know, let's
do that. Yeah. He literally in that little moment, called
(22:04):
his camera guy. You know, this is a little RinkyDink thing.
But and asked him, you know what your schedule is
and he confirmed like it was like three weeks out.
We're gonna film this thing. She's gonna do this, We're
gonna put it on the show. We need something like
this on it.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
So you came up with it, and now you're going
to be filmed in three weeks and you don't even
know what it is.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
I didn't know what it is. I had no name,
I had no ideas, I had no money. It was
just something in my heart. And I was acting like
I knew what I was talking about enough that he
went with it. He was either desperate enough for something
or I sounded.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Because things kind of camera you got to have a name.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Is that to do kind of I mean yeah. So
at this point I had a business partner. I went
to him and said, hey, I want to do this,
and I'd said what I want to do. I want
to go to single parents, probably mainly single moms. That's
my passion. I want to help them out. I want
to give him a day with their kids to go
have fun. And I want to just get my friends
and and do the honeydews, like fix a leaky flaw,
(23:02):
just those things. Just basically go have a day, come
back to a pre exactly. That's that's all it was.
I told my business partner, what do you think of
this idea? And he said I like it. And he
started telling me we should brand it with your real
estate business, and so you're thinking like extreme Home Makeover.
(23:24):
He started giving me these names and I said, no, nothing.
He said, you got to have it something so it
highlights your real estate because that'll be really where you know,
that's where charities can really help a business. And so
he kept telling me I have something with real estate
or homes and it and it never felt right and
I it was, you know, here, we only have three
(23:46):
weeks to come up with this whole thing. So it
was several days later, I was talking to my mom
on the phone. I said, I don't I don't want
it to have anything with the home. It's more than that.
It's gonna be lots of it's like just all kinds
of little miracles. I just said it out loud talking
to her, and there were and I said, that's it.
(24:08):
That's the name. That is what this is. It's not houses,
it's little miracles.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
So now that we know how we came up with
the name of little Miracles, to paraphrase little miracles, you know,
I don't want people to think that this is extreme
home makeover with a bus and people rolling up and
all this. It is a divorced bomb with three kids
(24:38):
who felt and understood the things we talked about, which
is anxiety, frustration, some shame. So you identified deeply with
these moms, and you understand what it is to struggle
financially with all of these other things going on and
(24:58):
their psyche, trying to put a wand to put some
lipstick on and a smile on their face for their children,
and trying to be a brave mom, but probably melting
into a pillow at night, crying herself to sleep because
of all the things that they feel. And the little
miracle is you just want to give a random mom
(25:22):
that's in this situation a nice day out with their kids,
and then while they're gone, you want to clean their house,
You want to fold some clothes, maybe slap some pain
on a wall, and just give them something nice for
a change. That's it, right, you know, for a single
(25:45):
mom's kid. That's a great day too. For the children,
it's a great day. And I have a soft spot
for the kids. And you know, I knew we were
going to talk about the moms because you were one
in that position, which is what obviously gave you the
drive to do this. But the kids, I mean the
(26:09):
kids to be able to have a day where they
get to see their mom happy and smile, where they
get to see their mom actually not look frazzled, distressed
out and just enjoyable. And then you get to come
home to something nice in this home when, as your
words are, so many of these kids are homesick. That
(26:31):
makes the sickness not so bad.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Probably, Oh yeah, I mean it's impossible to describe. I
could have never imagined, you know, when we started this,
I just wanted, yeah, mom to have a good day
and come home to a clean house.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
So tell me about don't worry about leading up to it.
We get it. You had three weeks. You're probably running
all over place begging, bard and stealing. Tell me about
the very first one. Tell me who it was and
how it went. And well, first of all, a mom
or dad?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
A mom?
Speaker 1 (27:06):
A mom? How many children?
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Five kids?
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And her husband divorced?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, been divorced. He was not much in the picture.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Okay, So basically about room with five kids, and she
had three jobs?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Three jobs.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
How do you work three jobs and make sure the
kids are like cared? Yeah? How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Exactly? A lot of times what you can't do it all?
And the house is one of the first things to go.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
It's destroyed.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It's destroyed, it's not clean, it's disorganized. No one's changed
an air filter, and who knows how many years the
things that are broken. There's a cup in the window
still catching the water leaking because they don't know how it's.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Actually this first the first Oh yeah, that's what you
walked into. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, how'd you found her?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
You know? I just to telling friends, Hey, I want
to do this.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
And friend said, hey, I know.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
I know someone who's such a great mom, my friend
Da da da, And yeah, so I said give your number.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
How old were her kids? Out of curiosity?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Her oldest was about I mean they were all in
the home. The oldest was sixteen or seventeen, and the
youngest was maybe five or six.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
About five women get out of bed every day.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
I have no idea. And what I found out she
she her kids were everything to her. You know, she
was the mom. That's how then, yeah, yeah, exactly exactly
do you call.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Her and just say, hey, listen here, you don't know us,
but we'd like to have your house for a day,
and we're going to send you off somewhere. I mean,
I mean, how do you how'd you respond to that?
You know, what'd be like? Get away from me?
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Ironically as crazy as this first one was, and I
was like trying to just just trust me. I don't
know what you know? And I wasn't what did I said, Hey,
I know your friend Jen Davies, and I'm trying to
do this thing I'm starting. It's like, can I stop
buy and talk to you and I'll make more sense.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Come over and fold some towels. I mean, that's kind
of weird if you think.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
It really is, it really is, and not just the
first time, it's the whole time. We kept that same
spirit about it with us.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
We kind of the first one because we're gonna get
to the next one. Yeah, okay, first one? All right?
So what what was her response? Do you remember?
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Okay? I just said I felt weird. Telling her on
the phone, I said, can I stop buying that thought?
If she met me, it wouldn't it wouldn't seem so weird.
She let me come over and I just told her, listen,
I've been a single mom. I'm just trying to do something.
I don't know. I'm just trying to start. All I
said was, can we like find out a little bit
about what you guys like to do together and just
let you guys have a fun day for I even said,
(29:44):
just maybe a few hours on a Saturday, and we're
just gonna kind of clean and do some stuff in
your house. If you're okay with that, you feel okay,
it's kind of weird. You don't know me. Do you
feel okay? Jen? Can come? My friend that knows us both.
And so she was reluctant, but I bet but grateful
right off that somebody was even willing to notice everything.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yeah, oh yeah, all right, So where'd you send she?
And what's her name?
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Her name is Julie Warner.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Okay, Julie, where did you send Julie and the crew?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Well, what was so awesome about this was what started
out is just a few hours, what do you guys
like to do? They like to go bowling, They love movies.
We were like, okay, cool, we'll send you let to
have a movie and get some pizza. That we can
manage that, right, we can do this. We can clean
tell me things aren't working in your house, little things. Well,
(30:35):
I started just putting the word out to people, and
what was amazing was within days of the word spreading,
this turned into oh, I want to help I want
to help you.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Let me have something to turn into just an army
of normal.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Folks, an army of normal folks. And you know what,
everybody has something? And I just got to what do
you what do you know how to do? Who do
you know that might know how to do something?
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Well?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Do you want to come and see if we need
your help? You know, everybody has something. Just figure out
what you see? What that is? They go well, we
ended up having people wanting to redo flooring and all that.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I mean, she had holes.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
So we needed more time. So we said, hey, are
you up for an overnight or it was Halloween of
all nights, and she's got young kids. But they said okay.
We sent them to park City, Oh cool, up up
the mountain. It wasn't very far, but the kids an hour.
The kids had never been there about an hour for
five minutes. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Town had a friend that knew somebody who had a hotel.
They'll let them stay there for free, you know, let
them Hey, okay, cool, maybe someone else chip in on
their dinner. And they, little by little, we just had this.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
So they got to go to nice dinner and Port
City in a cool hotel, stay in.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
A nice hotel on Main Street.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
In October thirty first it.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Was snowing, yes, up there, so they got to walk
Main Street. You gotta do all that.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
They got to get ice cream at that place on
Main Street. There's a good ice cream there is.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I'm impressed, you know. Yeah, they gotta do all that,
you know, and hear these kids just live down the hill.
They've never been up there. It was a It was
a major getaway for them, all right.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
So they roll, they roll, hold it. Do they have
a car?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Yes? On this one. The first one we sent them
up in their car, but we kind of decided like
we didn't want them stressed. We had a few activities planned,
so the first night they kept their car. Then the
second night we had someone who was a driver that
was willing to go up and drive them to the
places so she didn't have to. I go, I don't
want to worry about time, where to go.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
It'll worry about it.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
We're going to take care of the driver's picking you
guys up. We're gonna have a fun day driver for
the divorce mama. Yeah, love it. Bus that had music.
It was Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
When they're there and the kids probably feel like rock stars.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Oh, totally all right.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
How many people descended on this woman's home.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
I would say the first project, we at least had
seventy seventies, seventy five.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I really thought you were going to say twenty or
twenty five. That's not for purposes show. I really am surprised. Seventy. Yeah,
we'll be right back. Let's return to Tiani and what
(33:37):
Little Miracles did at their very first home.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
She had new floors, new cabinets in the kitchen. They
were falling apart. Somebody put new cabinets in own this home.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
She owned the home, so she got the home in
the divorce. But of course it didn't have the money
to keep it up exactly, which is and it was
very common these situation. Yeah, so so.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Cabinet, cabinets, the floor, which was huge.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Did she such a.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Good donated completely. It was a small house. It wasn't
a ton. People were so great, they were so willing.
In fact, we this project was interesting. We had someone
willing to donate granite, and I turned it down on
that way. I said, I didn't feel right about it.
We didn't really need granite. I appreciated it, but the countertops,
(34:28):
they were good. I really didn't want this to be
extreme homemade over like the nicest stuff, because I felt like,
I want to do this all the time. I don't
want people burning out.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
We don't really need you're thinking why not, But what
you're saying is you knew you were going back to
the till for another one, and you didn't want to
blow it all.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I didn't want to, Yeah, and I wanted to rooms.
So what we did that was just worked beautifully. Is
I mean, so overwhelming. I don't know what I'm doing.
I'm faking it.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
My business partner had a nonprofity, wasn't using that we
were able to umbrella under. So I didn't even have
a nonprofit five oh one c three so I could
get donations, you know, and write offs for people. But
I just had so many people with I want to help.
I want to help. So I was like, okay, I
just start dividing people up in rooms and I would say,
(35:20):
you've got Bailey. She's seven, she loves pink, she loves dragons,
she loves this, she loves that.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
So here's the thirty thousand foot view. Do something yes,
And you know I exactly laid out and managed. You
just said, no, this is sushi is especially like you
guys have this room, you run with it.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
And I said, try, this is what's worked for me.
Go to target, go to home depot. If you talk
to a manager, they're usually pretty cool. They can give
you a couple hundred bucks to get started, but just
see if you can help. There's no one. A lot
of the people, people from all walks of life. You know,
people that owned a lumber company that were great to
donate here and there people over the floor. They really are.
(36:04):
But we also had a lot of single parents that
got it, that wanted to be a part of this,
that didn't have the money to say it's okay, go
see if you can talk, you know, a little bit here,
a little bit there, Well we'll help you. So this
was like there was five kids, a couple of them
were sharing, but I mean most of the rooms are bedrooms,
so we just literally everybody was over one room and
(36:26):
we had a painter that did all the paint you know,
the same color. And then I said, you know, we
don't really have money, but if you want to raise
some money and try to get new furniture or try
to get new bedding or whatever. I mean, it was amazing. Yes,
in fact, she's a good sport about this story. But
she was embarrassed at first. There was a little nest
(36:49):
of mice living in her couch. When we went to
move it that we found were like throw it out.
And then we're like, we don't have a couch. We
don't have a couch for her. And somebody went to
RC Willie. The furnitures are like this is like an
couple hours before they're coming home. We're like, we gotta
we need to we need a couch for this family.
(37:09):
Someone go top to you know if this is that
type of cast, or just see if they'll donate something.
Tell them what we're doing, Invite them to come over.
We're gonna welcome them home here. Maybe they'll give us
a deal. We'll scrape up the money. Just we gotta
have a couch for this family. This couch shows up
people through the grape vine. A girl runs into someone
she knew at the store. Oh, she knew the manager,
(37:30):
and they end up this beautiful sectional. We're we're moving
it in like minutes before they came home. It was Oh,
it was a nice sectional for her whole fan they
were movie people. They you know, they just had one
little family room, but that couch was like heaven for them.
They loved it was brand new and had the reclining
(37:53):
you know, everybody had a spot and they just love
this couch. And it came in. It was one of
those level houses back in the eighties. Everybody had that.
And we're moving this couch in over the you know,
banister minutes before they're coming home. And it fit perfectly,
and it was just one of those moments of like,
this is just a little miracle. This is I mean
(38:15):
talk about that happened every time, over and over. Just
everything just came together at the last minute and was
so perfect. I could be here for hours telling you
guys stories about that. So amazing.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
They come down from the mountain, come down. We've had mountain,
and truthfully, just the day in Park City probably would
have been a mountain.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Well, Bill, you get this because you grew up as
a single you know, with a single mom. Even I
didn't understand that because my kids screw up. This what
I realized later, what brought tears to her eyes the
most was that day with her kids.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
She got to have a stress free day and she
got to show her kids herself, yes, something that was
more than it is. When you're in that stressful position,
your children don't even get to see who you really are.
I don't even could see why you were once a
desirable human being to be around, because you.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Were such a Yes, you nailed it.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
It's true. And so on that day, though, with all
the stress gone and not having to worry about any
of it, her kids got to experience her Yes, which
is amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
And what you just said kind of came to my mind,
you know, as they're coming home, what are we doing
here when they come home? You know, how what do
we want to have happened here? And I had that thought.
I wanted her kids, not that they didn't know, because
I knew they knew. She had a reputation of having
the best birthday parties in the neighborhood. She always had
(39:50):
the kids over. She was as mess best as she could.
She was the fun mom, you know, working three jobs
and crazy as could be. But you know, we I
wanted her kids to know just how amazing she was,
you know, sort of from someone else, sort of a moment,
because that's another part that I feel like kids lose,
(40:11):
is they're not having a mom and dad sort of
edify each other and brag on the other one a
little and show, you know, it gives these kids. My
dad did that for my mom and vice versa. And
I remember what it did to me as a kid,
thinking I have a really great dad, because my mom
told me that all the time. Do you know what
(40:32):
a great dad? You know, how lucky you kids are
to have such a great dad. He puts you first,
and I thought, wow, I do and I adored my
dad because of that.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
But but the problem is that divorced parents kids don't
hear that.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
You don't never hear it. And here is a mother
who is doing more than most, but her kids see.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
The chaos and they don't see her essence and her.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
House is a mess, and they don't why is our
house messy? And there's just why why is our house
falling apart?
Speaker 1 (41:03):
So forget, forget, beyond this. I'm dying to understand. When
they roll up from the mountain and they hit the door,
does she must just smelt.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
It's a beautiful moment. So another another little thing that
happened during this time when I was before, I had
talked out loud and said I want to do this,
and I was thinking about it. I laid down with
my daughter to get it to fall asleep one night
and I was flipping through my phone and this video
came on and just so happened. It's a video from
someone called David Archiletta. The song is called Glorious and
(41:41):
it's such a powerful video you have to listen to it.
It's our themes. I knew in that moment before I
got off her bed that that was calling to me
because the whole song is everyone plays a piece, everyone
has a gift. Just follow your heart. You'll figure out
what it is. Just do it. And I had been
(42:01):
feeling I need to do something, and that song spoke
to me. I got up, I got went downstairs. I
had my boys pull it up on the TV. Watch
this with me. We're doing this, We're gonna do this.
This is such a you know, this is song is
talking to me right now. So that has been our
theme song. So when the family comes home, David Archiletta glorious, Well,
(42:24):
we have a little dance party before actually, because we
are working hard. It is not glamorous. We're exhausted and
telling everybody the family's about to come. And so we
wanted to be out on the street. We wear red
red balloons. We wanted him to feel like start the
first one, yeah, the first the first time we were
(42:46):
blue because I had grown up with me and I
said no. After that, I changed it to red. Red's
a powerful I said no, exactly because it's a powerful color.
So the first time, but I knew the feeling. I
wanted him to feel like Rockster come pulling down the
street and they see everybody and we're having fun. So
we had a guy that was a friend. He's a painter.
(43:07):
He had a DJ equipment, right okay, so he would
get everybody doing theyj He was awesome painter slash slash.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Of course he is amazing. Yeah, all right, so they
get there. I really want to when the door opened,
what does she say?
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Well, we if you hear the song. So I'm always like,
we stop the dance party music as they're pulling up
the street and we hit that song and it is
powerful right off the bat. You just have to hear it.
And they pull up and it's just a moment. No
one's saying anything.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Our producers worth the salt during when this is actually
being listened to, We'll have that song in the background.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
You gotta play the song.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
You can see Alex there. I'm not sure if you'll
pull it off or not.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Yeah, well, if you can, it'd be worth it. You
got it. I know.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
I actually will reach out to him and don't cut
this out. That is you being weak. Okay, go ahead,
the songs playing, the painters playing, yes, and.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
It's it's just love. It's just love, that's all it is.
It's random strangers hugging these people. Some people you know,
some people you feel like you know the family, even
if you don't, because you've been there working you all day,
all night.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
You've gotta tell me. The kids are sprinting to the
rooms to see what's well.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
We don't let them go in just yet. We have
this moment. We're listening to the whole song, hugging everybody.
It's just to feel, take it in, feel the moment here,
feel these people love you.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
Human beings doing something it is another human just good
old fashioned, just because it's.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Your turn, not because you're the pity story. It's just
your turn. It's your neighbors here helping you. It's your day.
And I wanted them to feel that and just take
it in. So that's what that song is. During the
whole song, it's just everybody hugging each other. The kids
have painted welcome home, you know, and there's balloons and
everybody's just in the red. And then when the song's over,
(45:22):
whoever nominated the family takes the mic for a second,
just a second and tell us why why did you?
Because that's our only rule, with our little miracles. You
can't nominate yourself. That's that's really the rule. Yeah, but otherwise,
you know, it doesn't have to look a certain way.
You don't have to need all these not every story
(45:43):
is a dramatic story. Some are some are just tell
us why you nominated the family, tell us a little.
And I also wanted that to be a moment for
these kids to hear why their mom is so great.
You know why why all these people are here, not
just we're here for you. You kids are amazing because
like you said, you didn't choose this. Your life's a
(46:06):
little tougher, but you're amazing and your mom, you know
what she does for you. So it was like a
moment for someone they knew to tell the amazing things
that their mom does for them that maybe they don't see,
and why everybody wanted to be here. And you know
what when they heard it was your family. Look at
(46:27):
all these people. Everybody heard about you and wanted to
be here because you guys are awesome and you're special
and you deserve it and we just want you to
nothing else. You feel that every day of you ever
wonder if you're loved? You remember today, I.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Mean for the mom I'm hearing this and you know,
for some it could be life changing, but for all
it would have to be life affirming. Yeah, it would
have to be life affirming for a single mom fighting
and struggling all the things we talked about, the anxiety,
the bills, the fear, the shame and everything else to
(47:05):
be affirmed as I'm a human being with value and
although I'm struggling, these children are proof of my value
and affirmation, and it's an opportunity just for them to
feel that. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty special. Would you please
tell me what happens when they go in the house.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
Yeah, it's awesome. So we learned you can't let everybody,
you know, we get typically lots of hundred people. We've
had so many people. You can't let everyone run in.
So our rule is if you worked on the room
specific to go to the room, you get a head start.
You get to go in the room, so you get
to see that.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
So you get to show them around what you've done.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
We've got to where if the mom wants to say something,
but we never you know, half the time they'll want
to say something. Half the time it's overwhelming, So we
just let them go through, you know, and I'm not
usually the one going through. It's it's kind of the
one that nominated them, who you know, has a little
been a comfort. You don't want a bunch of strangers,
you know. I usually always meet the families prior, but
(48:06):
I like to let that be their moment to walk through. Plus,
whoever nominates them, we're like, hey, you're not just nominating
them when we're doing everything. You're in this with us,
right If you really want this for your friend, your sister,
your brother, you know, you're in it with us. Yeah.
So they're a big part of the project, and so
they're they're front and center and leading them through and
it's just amazing.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
And so so let me ask something. Do you and
during this process you kind of step back?
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Yeah, I don't know why I've found myself. I kind
of just you know, sometimes I say stuff when they
first come or whatever, but I'm I kind of watch
and I hang back a little bit and just kind
of take it all in. I Mean, it's overwhelming. I'm
not a real emotional person, but that's my moment to
kind of just be like, because I'm exhausted. It's a lot,
you know, this month is nine years we've been doing it,
(48:56):
and there's a lot of times going in I'm like
this the last time I'm doing this, so and I'm
just taking it in at that point, and I'm always
so grateful that we didn't decide to quit, because that
thought comes in my mind.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
Every year was this. Do you remember thirty.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
It's nine years ago now, so what are we in?
Is it twenty thirteen?
Speaker 1 (49:18):
Yeah, twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
I was Halloween.
Speaker 1 (49:20):
And so after this little experiment of yours, you said,
we're going to do this again.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
Yeah. I really wanted to do it again.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
It's a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
What was interesting now we had them filming it for
the local TV thing, right, Oh, yeah, that's right, And
I wondered, will we really have this much help if
we don't.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Have the TV.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
So I didn't know if is that why everyone was
so good about helping out, you know, because they want
to see themselves on a People knew it was on TV.
We're going to say your business if you helped out.
Obviously that's going on the little clip, but I knew
we definitely wanted to do it again. When it came
together and the show actually aired, it was a little disappointing.
(50:07):
Because the guy who put together the show, he had
highlighted his contractors that were part of his show, but
they weren't the ones that did the work, and he
did a little editing to where they went back after
and added some things that weren't really Do you hear.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
That, Alex, Please don't screw the show up all your stuff.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
Yeah, it did it. It does hurt the whole deal.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Don't do that.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Let it be his thing.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
That's right, that's how we're going to do this.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
We had a big party, and I remember we all
just like a little bit like, oh, that's not really
how it went down, you know, And I felt bad
and I had to have a conversation with him.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
You're saying that sometimes TV portrays things as they're not.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
Yeah, I've found that out. Yeah, and sometimes they want
to build up the peace people. I said, well, wait, what.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
What about the people that actually did the work.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
They didn't, They didn't actually care that their name, But
you can't not put their name on and put you
he said, yeah, unfortunately I know. He said, yeah, I
have to because they're part of my group.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Happens all too much. Yeah, twenty thirteen, you do this thing?
How long till the next one.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
So let's see that was October. Gosh, what's crazy is
right after you do want it happens every time somebody
tells about another family.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Yeah, right, for sure.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
So I want to say it was like February.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
So how many months?
Speaker 2 (51:36):
A couple months, few months?
Speaker 1 (51:38):
Yeah, and we're from twenty thirteen. When you get an
epiphany that you're going to call a thing little miracles,
and you have three weeks to kind of pull us off,
and you don't even know what this is, and it
ends up being the experience that we just described. Now
it's twenty twenty two, and you do four of these?
(51:59):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (52:00):
We do one every quarter typically for yeah, four generally,
sometimes we've done more.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
Which since October of twenty fourteen, the numbers I have
here are one thousand, eight hundred and twenty seven volunteers,
eighty six families served, twenty seven community serves, and ninety
eight hundred and forty four volunteer hours, all of which
(52:29):
have basically enriched the lives of a whole bunch of
kids who desperately need to have something enriching happening in
their lives, and a whole bunch of divorced spouses who
are struggling with anxiety and shame and concern and fear
(52:52):
and worry, and all of a sudden, they get a
day that their children get to see them for the
people they are, and they get to come home to
a better place to live. Amen, all because some normal
kid that grew up in Colorado who experienced a little
(53:13):
tough life decided, you know, we don't have to go
do missions in Brazil. There's there's an opportunity to do
a mission right here in my hometown. And you put
together an army of just normal folks who wanted to
give and serve just for the simple edification of another
human being that needed it. Is that what I'm hearing.
Speaker 2 (53:35):
That's what you're hearing.
Speaker 1 (53:41):
And that concludes part one of our conversation with Tiani,
notably with our normal music, because our weak producer clearly
didn't get permission to use the music that Tianni was
talking about, so you got the basic I don't know
what this kind of music is when we leave, whatever
that stuff is. Anyway, I hope you'll listen to part
(54:04):
two that's now available. Her story really does just keep
getting better. But if you don't make sure you join
an army of normal folks at normalfolks dot us and
sign up to become a member of the movement. By
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summaries in case you happen to miss an episode, or
you may just prefer reading about our incredible guest guys. Together,
(54:26):
we can change this country, but it starts with you.
I'll see in Part two.
Do you call her and just say, hey, listen here.
You don't know us, but we'd like to have your
house for a day, and we're going to send you
off somewhere. I mean, I mean, how do you how
DoD you respond to that?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
You know? What?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Be like? Get away from me?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Ironically as crazy as this first one was, and I
was like trying to just just trust me. I don't
know what you know, and I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
What did you say through her?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I said, Hey, I know your friend Jen Davies, and
I'm trying to do this thing I'm starting. It's like,
can I stop buy and talk to you, It'll make
more sense.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I'm over and fold some towels.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Ye, that's kind of weird if you think it really is.
It really is.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur,
and I've been an inner city football coach in Memphis.
And the last part unintentionally led to an oscar for
the film about our team. It's called Undefeated. Guys, I
believe our country's problems will never be solved by a
(01:04):
bunch of fancy people in nice suits talking big words
that nobody understands on CNN and Fox, but rather by
an army of normal folks US just you and me deciding, Hey,
I can help. That's what Tiani Shoemaker Clyde the voice
we just heard is done. Tiani is the founder of
Little Miracles, which, as you might guess, helps single moms
(01:27):
with miracles in their home that are meant to be little,
but every single time they've turned out to be incredibly
meaningful to their moms and their kids and to the
army of volunteers that have made their eighty six miracles happen.
I can't wait for you to hear the story right
after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Tiani actually
(02:04):
played college basketball at BYU and then married the quarterback.
Although this beginning may sound a little fairy tellish, and
it was for a while, the Mormon couple with three
children divorced sadly after ten years, and suddenly Tiani, a
single mom with a fashion merchandising degree that she wasn't
(02:25):
even using, had to figure out how to make it
on her own in Salt Lake City. You're a single mom,
single mom with a fashion merchandising thing going on in
Salt Lake career? Yes, and what do you do to
make ends me? Seriously? Odd jobs? Whatever jobs or not,
(02:47):
I don't know the truth.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, I'm actually kind of proud of this, but I
kept it on the down law. I delivered the Salt
Lake Tribune.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
You did what.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I had a college degree. I could deliver this somehow.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I'm somebody who you delivered papers.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I was like making like fifteen hundred bucks, which I
thought was a ton of money at the time, just
for having a little exercise in the morning. I had
this route of apartment, so I'd fill my little bag
up with paper. I thought it was a great little gig, right.
I didn't need a babysitter. I was up at four
in the morning. I got done.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So I show you were the paper boy girl girl
for a minute.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
We had Actually when I was married too, we'd opened
a salon, a little like a Tannian salon spa. So
I ran that a little bit. But about the time
I got divorced, we sold that.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
And so did you struggle. Oh it's a single mama, kids,
I'll struggle financially.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean, so I got divorced probably like
oh four h five, and I actually found myself pregnant,
not married, had two kids already, no family in Colorado
or in Utah, so we're all mostly in Colorado. And yeah,
my fashion merchandise degree didn't come to help me at all.
(04:01):
Like I was just trying to fig what am I
going to trying to figure out what my life was
going to be at that point, I mean, everything had
gone like my script, I b yu marry the quarter
like I had thought until.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
That, this is a serious audible.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, and I decided to get my real estate license.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Is this why you're throwing newspapers?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
No, we're right out right about the time I was
thinking about it, Yeah, like I can't do this for
very long, right, I mean, this isn't really paying my bills,
you know.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
It was it was you say, I'm gonna get my
real estate. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
The market at that point was doing really well, so
I thought, Okay, all my friends that were doing it were, well, if.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You're getting your if this is around two thousand and
six or seven, you're getting a real estate license right
before the housing crash.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Absolutely, yep, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It was very how'd that work out? So?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
You know, what now looking back was it was great
because you know, when I think about it, and I
don't know for sure how I got through all of that,
just one day at a time, a little by little
by little by little. I mean here I had, I
got my license in O six right right enough to
see the good stuff what it could be, and then
(05:13):
got on with a builder. Thought life's going great, and
then yep, and then found myself in this situation and
like just like that, the market turned, everything crashed. You know,
it was a tough, tough time.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Okay, so fair enough to say you grew up a
normal kid in a really organic, good old fashioned American family,
went to college, You're checking the boxes, doing what you're
supposed to do, get your degree, marry the quarterback, and
then the world kind of falls apart. You found yourself single,
financially struggling, having to feed three miles and did you cry?
(05:54):
There were their nights you cried. Oh yeah, we scared.
I mean scared in terms of I'm not gonna be
able to pay my bills and maybe put.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Out Oh yeah. In fact, my boys remember very well well.
My daughter was a hard baby too, So I mean
that's exhausting. I was dealing with her twenty four to seven.
And you know, but they remember the day I sat
them down and said, you know what, guys, I just
need a little help, and I think we might have
to move to Colorado for just living with my parents
(06:24):
to try to get my feet under me again. And
my oldest said, I don't. I'm not leaving my friends. Friend,
I'll stay with dad and I will just never forget
that moment, because.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Did that shatter you? Well, I just.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Knew it wasn't an option, right, I just knew in
that moment, I'm not leaving my kids. I got to
figure this out. I gotta do whatever I gotta do.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
So my mom and father were divorced when I was four, okay,
and my mom was subsequently married divorced a number of
times after that. She was not a good picker of men.
And I remember if I got straight a's and a
(07:10):
week back then, the grading periods were six weeks, okay,
And if I got straight a's for my six weeks thing,
I got to go to Wendy's. That was like, oh boy,
you know that was a big thing. And you know today,
I mean, it almost seems like a lifetime ago to me.
(07:33):
But it is my reality and it is the reason
that I think the way I do because I remember
that struggle, and that struggle is fearful, and I know
its fearful for my mom, worried about what we were
going to have to do. We also did the grandparent
thing a couple times. But you know, it's also scary
(07:56):
for a kid. Yeah, and they won't often verbalize it
or show it to their parent, But I lived it.
And you don't want to lose your friends. You don't
want to lose whatever house it is you have, and
you really don't even know that you're broke. You just
don't want things to change too much.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, And.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I wonder did you feel that ever?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah? I was always mindful of especially my oldest is
very sensitive, and he knew when I was struggling. He
knew the nights I was crying right and worried and stressed.
And he I still have him. He wrote me all
notes all the time, and you know, said it's okay,
They're going to be okay. You know, And now we
(08:44):
talk about it, and you know, they tell me things
I didn't know probably back then. Tell me one, well,
oh gosh, I mean divorce is just hard to begin with.
I mean they were I didn't know they ever knew.
I cried and had those nights, of course, and my
my son heard, Yeah, he's described him in detail to me,
(09:04):
and I felt so bad, you know. And he went
on a church mission right out of high school, which
is another cultural thing with the Mormon religion. He went
to Madagascar, and as he was leaving and I was,
you know, it's a big deal, he'd kind of, I.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
That's just that's just east of South Africa. I mean,
that's way down.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I knew nothing about this country. I was, you know,
researching it. Obviously, you don't know. You know, that's a
that takes a lot of courage and faith for someone
to you don't know, take off where you're heading, who
you're going to be. You know, it's a kind of
a crazy time. And I was trying to give him
my best pep talk at the time about you know,
(09:47):
just try to love these people and you'll feel like
they'll be your home, they'll be your family, you know.
He said, Mom, you don't have to worry about me.
He said, I've been homesick my whole life. And I said,
it took me a minute and then it kind of
broke my heart a little bit because.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
You know, hang on a second, I've been home, I've
been homesick.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Like, don't worry. I know what homesick feels like, because
you know, their dad was in their life and a
good father. So a lot of women don't have that,
but for a child who's got to go back and forth.
And he would say that as a little boy, when
I'm with you, I miss dad. When I'm with dad,
I miss you, and they can never really come and
get me. You know, that's the reality of divorce. And
(10:34):
half of families are living that way, and a lot
of kids don't get to see their dads, you know,
and that's even harder. But the ones that do, they're
longing for mom. You know, they want that family. So
you know, he's this big six ' five, great, strong kid,
and when you know, kind of broke my heart. But
I also knew that I felt that because they couldn't
(10:57):
fully enjoy Disneyland with dad because I'm not there, and
you know, and I wasn't able to take them on
trips like that. So I'm trying to make it as
fun as I can in my chaotic you know, seeing
the mom life.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Did you feel competition with your ex husband?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
No, I really didn't. A lot do A lot do
and I'm grateful. I don't know, it's a little bit
of my personality. I don't. But my kids did. I
remember they went to Hawaii. He got remarried after a
few years, and they went on some trips, and you know,
they were able to to have a lot of experiences
(11:32):
with their dad that a lot of kids don't because
dads a lot of times take off after the divorce.
But I remember them wanting to show me their video
of Hawaii and all these things they did. And then
he stopped and he said, Mom, I feel bad, you know,
And I was like, oh no, I didn't want him
to feel that way. I truly wasn't. I truly didn't
feel jealous. I was at peace that we just weren't
(11:55):
a good match. We never had a bad, ugly divorce.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
But the point is the kids. But he feel all
that Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I remember feeling that
kind of stuff. And the reason I'm asking about this
is not to try to jerk tears out of you,
but or to make you feel even remotely guilty, because
I know, as a single mom, You've done everything you
(12:18):
can possibly do, because I watched my mom do everything
she could possibly do. But the thing is, with about
a fifty percent divorce right in our country, that's bad
for the adults. But the kids didn't divorce anybody exactly.
They showed up and they're in it, not by any
(12:40):
choice or doing of their own. And it's traumatic for
a child. And then when you take the trauma of
a child having to choose between parents, having to balance
between parents not wanting to hurt one another's parents feelings,
just like you've described being pulled back and forth on
(13:02):
Thanksgiving and Christmas and summer trips and all of that,
that's enough trauma. Or a child with a divorced parent
who doesn't even get to experience anything with the other
parent because other parent abandons them. All of that is
extraordinarily traumatic and formative on a child. And then you
(13:22):
throw in on it economic difficulty, and we wonder why
these children oftentimes grow up with emotional scars.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, oh yeah, you nailed it.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
So I'm trying to paint a picture, and the picture
is kid grows up, good parent, family moves around, goes
to place, high school, and then college ball marries the
quarterback starts to sound out little fairy talish, and just
a few years later you find yourself with three kids
struggling with all kinds of issues, which is unfortunately fairly common, yeah,
(14:09):
I think in our society. And you do start having
a little bit of success with your real estate business.
And now tell me again, you were invited on something
to Brazil. I don't it was a mission, So.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yes, I had. At this point, I had a friend who,
you know, the market crashed. Fortunately I got in with
some really good people that were neighbors I had known
for a long time. We started working like the short
cell foreclosure market pretty hard, and I had a friend
who wanted to He had never invested in real estate,
but wanted to start investing some of the short cells
(14:45):
that we had. So we became really close friends. And
my oldest was struggling at the time. You know, he's
kind of going through puberty. Oh yeah, and he was
just he was a really good kid, but just really
having struggles and depressed. And you know, I thought, you're
the perfect kid, you know how. You know, I was
trying to figure out a way to help him so much.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
It's funny, you're the perfect kid. Well, you know, no, no,
I know, I get it. Yeah, but I mean when
you when you think about all that his emotions and
heart are bearing.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah, of course he was struggling, I know, and I probably,
let me tell you something, realized how.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Much I was. I was a pretty good athlete coming
up and everything else and all that, and I felt
like such a second class citizen because I didn't have
a dad in the games, and and I struggled with
it into my forties. Really oh yeah, yeah, So a
(15:46):
kid going through puberty struggling with it is just not
at all surprising to me. Yeah, but you're dealing.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Didn't understand it at the time what all he was feeling, obviously,
But even though he had a dad, we're also in
a very you know, religious community, was not typical to
have divorce. None of his friends had divorced, and there
was teasing about, you know, and stuff that I probably
didn't understand at the time. And then you add on
(16:15):
the other thing. He's real hard on himself. He's naturally
a very athletic kid and all that, but he just
was really just struggling more than and I didn't know
how to help him. I didn't know how to connect
with him. I would try to tell him to look
for things he could do for other people, and he
genuinely wanted to because he can't. He said, what do
you mean by what do I do? Give someone a ride?
(16:36):
He was thinking about it, but he didn't know what
to do. And so then hear my friend he had
started a company that was very successful MLM business, and
he had created this foundation that was in Brazil and
they had missions is what they called him. They would
send people over to help out in these orphanages and
(16:57):
rebuild schools and do all kinds of things in Brazil.
And I heard all the stories, and he said, why
don't you take him? You guys should go on the
next mission, and I'll pay for it and you go
and it'll be amazing, it'll be wonderful. And I love
the idea, but it sparked an idea in my heart
(17:18):
that said, well, why do these all have to be
in like so far away? I hear about these awesome
humanitarian things and what they do for people's lives, but
how can we do this same How can we have
that same experience here? Because you're nice to offer to
pay for my kids to go it's not cheap to
do that. Most families can't do that. What about all
(17:40):
those other friends of mine, all these single moms, I
know they can't go. I want I want something that
we can connect with people and just be here in
our community.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But first,
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with other Premium members and me access to monthly Ask
(18:15):
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(18:36):
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(18:57):
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you're down to help. If not, just keep listening. We'll
(19:19):
be right back. So your friend doing the thing of
Brazil plan, it entices you to kind of planet and
(19:41):
it's planted a seed of Yeah, doing something for someone
who's more disadvantaged is great, but you decided you want
to do it on a more local basis.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, it really planted a seed that this felt like
I want something more. I was surviving at that point.
I was I was finally feeling successful in real estate,
and I was grateful to be where I was at.
But I also felt like you know, and there was
even times I couldn't believe some of the checks I
(20:13):
was I didn't think I would ever have a check
worth that, you know, but.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
It it it.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Kind of very quickly became meaningless in a way because
I just felt more busy, I felt more stress I
felt more hustle and worry, and I got to keep
up with the next thing now, and I meanwhile missing
the point, like you know, of life here. I gotta
have something else.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Yeah. So, yeah, you got out of all the stress
that you found yourself in, and it created a whole
another ball of stress, which I think is really normal
for people. I think the older we get our stressor's changed,
but the level of stress didn't necessarily diminish. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Well, when I started tell you the story, this idea
came to me very quickly. You know, the seed was planted,
and the desire was there. I knew there's something I
want to do something. And once I got the idea,
I actually was just talking out loud one day in
my office to another girl, I want to do something
(21:17):
like this. And because my background was real estate and
I enjoyed fixing houses up and I'd done some flips
by then, people would ask me to help them, you know,
and that's that was my gift, you know, that was
my thing I could do. I could go clean up
your house and fix And I was telling her, I
want to do something like this is what we can do,
you know, just our friends. We can clean we can
organize their house, rearrange the front, make it feel good,
(21:40):
fix their kids rooms. And someone overheard me talking who
actually had a local real estate show just on in
Salt Lake, and he was kind of getting board of
the content, just showing houses and stuff, and he said, Hey,
I really like this idea, like let's you know, let's
do that. Yeah. He literally in that little moment, called
(22:04):
his camera guy. You know, this is a little RinkyDink thing.
But and asked him, you know what your schedule is
and he confirmed like it was like three weeks out.
We're gonna film this thing. She's gonna do this, We're
gonna put it on the show. We need something like
this on it.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
So you came up with it, and now you're going
to be filmed in three weeks and you don't even
know what it is.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
I didn't know what it is. I had no name,
I had no ideas, I had no money. It was
just something in my heart. And I was acting like
I knew what I was talking about enough that he
went with it. He was either desperate enough for something
or I sounded.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Because things kind of camera you got to have a name.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Is that to do kind of I mean yeah. So
at this point I had a business partner. I went
to him and said, hey, I want to do this,
and I'd said what I want to do. I want
to go to single parents, probably mainly single moms. That's
my passion. I want to help them out. I want
to give him a day with their kids to go
have fun. And I want to just get my friends
and and do the honeydews, like fix a leaky flaw,
(23:02):
just those things. Just basically go have a day, come
back to a pre exactly. That's that's all it was.
I told my business partner, what do you think of
this idea? And he said I like it. And he
started telling me we should brand it with your real
estate business, and so you're thinking like extreme Home Makeover.
(23:24):
He started giving me these names and I said, no, nothing.
He said, you got to have it something so it
highlights your real estate because that'll be really where you know,
that's where charities can really help a business. And so
he kept telling me I have something with real estate
or homes and it and it never felt right and
I it was, you know, here, we only have three
(23:46):
weeks to come up with this whole thing. So it
was several days later, I was talking to my mom
on the phone. I said, I don't I don't want
it to have anything with the home. It's more than that.
It's gonna be lots of it's like just all kinds
of little miracles. I just said it out loud talking
to her, and there were and I said, that's it.
(24:08):
That's the name. That is what this is. It's not houses,
it's little miracles.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
So now that we know how we came up with
the name of little Miracles, to paraphrase little miracles, you know,
I don't want people to think that this is extreme
home makeover with a bus and people rolling up and
all this. It is a divorced bomb with three kids
(24:38):
who felt and understood the things we talked about, which
is anxiety, frustration, some shame. So you identified deeply with
these moms, and you understand what it is to struggle
financially with all of these other things going on and
(24:58):
their psyche, trying to put a wand to put some
lipstick on and a smile on their face for their children,
and trying to be a brave mom, but probably melting
into a pillow at night, crying herself to sleep because
of all the things that they feel. And the little
miracle is you just want to give a random mom
(25:22):
that's in this situation a nice day out with their kids,
and then while they're gone, you want to clean their house,
You want to fold some clothes, maybe slap some pain
on a wall, and just give them something nice for
a change. That's it, right, you know, for a single
(25:45):
mom's kid. That's a great day too. For the children,
it's a great day. And I have a soft spot
for the kids. And you know, I knew we were
going to talk about the moms because you were one
in that position, which is what obviously gave you the
drive to do this. But the kids, I mean the
(26:09):
kids to be able to have a day where they
get to see their mom happy and smile, where they
get to see their mom actually not look frazzled, distressed
out and just enjoyable. And then you get to come
home to something nice in this home when, as your
words are, so many of these kids are homesick. That
(26:31):
makes the sickness not so bad.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Probably, Oh yeah, I mean it's impossible to describe. I
could have never imagined, you know, when we started this,
I just wanted, yeah, mom to have a good day
and come home to a clean house.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
So tell me about don't worry about leading up to it.
We get it. You had three weeks. You're probably running
all over place begging, bard and stealing. Tell me about
the very first one. Tell me who it was and
how it went. And well, first of all, a mom
or dad?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
A mom?
Speaker 1 (27:06):
A mom? How many children?
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Five kids?
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And her husband divorced?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, been divorced. He was not much in the picture.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Okay, So basically about room with five kids, and she
had three jobs?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Three jobs.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
How do you work three jobs and make sure the
kids are like cared? Yeah? How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Exactly? A lot of times what you can't do it all?
And the house is one of the first things to go.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
It's destroyed.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It's destroyed, it's not clean, it's disorganized. No one's changed
an air filter, and who knows how many years the
things that are broken. There's a cup in the window
still catching the water leaking because they don't know how it's.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Actually this first the first Oh yeah, that's what you
walked into. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, how'd you found her?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
You know? I just to telling friends, Hey, I want
to do this.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
And friend said, hey, I know.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
I know someone who's such a great mom, my friend
Da da da, And yeah, so I said give your number.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
How old were her kids? Out of curiosity?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Her oldest was about I mean they were all in
the home. The oldest was sixteen or seventeen, and the
youngest was maybe five or six.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
About five women get out of bed every day.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
I have no idea. And what I found out she
she her kids were everything to her. You know, she
was the mom. That's how then, yeah, yeah, exactly exactly
do you call.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Her and just say, hey, listen here, you don't know us,
but we'd like to have your house for a day,
and we're going to send you off somewhere. I mean,
I mean, how do you how'd you respond to that?
You know, what'd be like? Get away from me?
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Ironically as crazy as this first one was, and I
was like trying to just just trust me. I don't
know what you know? And I wasn't what did I said, Hey,
I know your friend Jen Davies, and I'm trying to
do this thing I'm starting. It's like, can I stop
buy and talk to you and I'll make more sense.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Come over and fold some towels. I mean, that's kind
of weird if you think.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
It really is, it really is, and not just the
first time, it's the whole time. We kept that same
spirit about it with us.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
We kind of the first one because we're gonna get
to the next one. Yeah, okay, first one? All right?
So what what was her response? Do you remember?
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Okay? I just said I felt weird. Telling her on
the phone, I said, can I stop buying that thought?
If she met me, it wouldn't it wouldn't seem so weird.
She let me come over and I just told her, listen,
I've been a single mom. I'm just trying to do something.
I don't know. I'm just trying to start. All I
said was, can we like find out a little bit
about what you guys like to do together and just
let you guys have a fun day for I even said,
(29:44):
just maybe a few hours on a Saturday, and we're
just gonna kind of clean and do some stuff in
your house. If you're okay with that, you feel okay,
it's kind of weird. You don't know me. Do you
feel okay? Jen? Can come? My friend that knows us both.
And so she was reluctant, but I bet but grateful
right off that somebody was even willing to notice everything.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yeah, oh yeah, all right, So where'd you send she?
And what's her name?
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Her name is Julie Warner.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Okay, Julie, where did you send Julie and the crew?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Well, what was so awesome about this was what started
out is just a few hours, what do you guys
like to do? They like to go bowling, They love movies.
We were like, okay, cool, we'll send you let to
have a movie and get some pizza. That we can
manage that, right, we can do this. We can clean
tell me things aren't working in your house, little things. Well,
(30:35):
I started just putting the word out to people, and
what was amazing was within days of the word spreading,
this turned into oh, I want to help I want
to help you.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Let me have something to turn into just an army
of normal.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Folks, an army of normal folks. And you know what,
everybody has something? And I just got to what do
you what do you know how to do? Who do
you know that might know how to do something?
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Well?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Do you want to come and see if we need
your help? You know, everybody has something. Just figure out
what you see? What that is? They go well, we
ended up having people wanting to redo flooring and all that.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I mean, she had holes.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
So we needed more time. So we said, hey, are
you up for an overnight or it was Halloween of
all nights, and she's got young kids. But they said okay.
We sent them to park City, Oh cool, up up
the mountain. It wasn't very far, but the kids an hour.
The kids had never been there about an hour for
five minutes. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Town had a friend that knew somebody who had a hotel.
They'll let them stay there for free, you know, let
them Hey, okay, cool, maybe someone else chip in on
their dinner. And they, little by little, we just had this.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
So they got to go to nice dinner and Port
City in a cool hotel, stay in.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
A nice hotel on Main Street.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
In October thirty first it.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Was snowing, yes, up there, so they got to walk
Main Street. You gotta do all that.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
They got to get ice cream at that place on
Main Street. There's a good ice cream there is.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I'm impressed, you know. Yeah, they gotta do all that,
you know, and hear these kids just live down the hill.
They've never been up there. It was a It was
a major getaway for them, all right.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
So they roll, they roll, hold it. Do they have
a car?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Yes? On this one. The first one we sent them
up in their car, but we kind of decided like
we didn't want them stressed. We had a few activities planned,
so the first night they kept their car. Then the
second night we had someone who was a driver that
was willing to go up and drive them to the
places so she didn't have to. I go, I don't
want to worry about time, where to go.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
It'll worry about it.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
We're going to take care of the driver's picking you
guys up. We're gonna have a fun day driver for
the divorce mama. Yeah, love it. Bus that had music.
It was Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
When they're there and the kids probably feel like rock stars.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Oh, totally all right.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
How many people descended on this woman's home.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
I would say the first project, we at least had
seventy seventies, seventy five.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I really thought you were going to say twenty or
twenty five. That's not for purposes show. I really am surprised. Seventy. Yeah,
we'll be right back. Let's return to Tiani and what
(33:37):
Little Miracles did at their very first home.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
She had new floors, new cabinets in the kitchen. They
were falling apart. Somebody put new cabinets in own this home.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
She owned the home, so she got the home in
the divorce. But of course it didn't have the money
to keep it up exactly, which is and it was
very common these situation. Yeah, so so.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Cabinet, cabinets, the floor, which was huge.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Did she such a.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Good donated completely. It was a small house. It wasn't
a ton. People were so great, they were so willing.
In fact, we this project was interesting. We had someone
willing to donate granite, and I turned it down on
that way. I said, I didn't feel right about it.
We didn't really need granite. I appreciated it, but the countertops,
(34:28):
they were good. I really didn't want this to be
extreme homemade over like the nicest stuff, because I felt like,
I want to do this all the time. I don't
want people burning out.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
We don't really need you're thinking why not, But what
you're saying is you knew you were going back to
the till for another one, and you didn't want to
blow it all.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I didn't want to, Yeah, and I wanted to rooms.
So what we did that was just worked beautifully. Is
I mean, so overwhelming. I don't know what I'm doing.
I'm faking it.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
My business partner had a nonprofity, wasn't using that we
were able to umbrella under. So I didn't even have
a nonprofit five oh one c three so I could
get donations, you know, and write offs for people. But
I just had so many people with I want to help.
I want to help. So I was like, okay, I
just start dividing people up in rooms and I would say,
(35:20):
you've got Bailey. She's seven, she loves pink, she loves dragons,
she loves this, she loves that.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
So here's the thirty thousand foot view. Do something yes,
And you know I exactly laid out and managed. You
just said, no, this is sushi is especially like you
guys have this room, you run with it.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
And I said, try, this is what's worked for me.
Go to target, go to home depot. If you talk
to a manager, they're usually pretty cool. They can give
you a couple hundred bucks to get started, but just
see if you can help. There's no one. A lot
of the people, people from all walks of life. You know,
people that owned a lumber company that were great to
donate here and there people over the floor. They really are.
(36:04):
But we also had a lot of single parents that
got it, that wanted to be a part of this,
that didn't have the money to say it's okay, go
see if you can talk, you know, a little bit here,
a little bit there, Well we'll help you. So this
was like there was five kids, a couple of them
were sharing, but I mean most of the rooms are bedrooms,
so we just literally everybody was over one room and
(36:26):
we had a painter that did all the paint you know,
the same color. And then I said, you know, we
don't really have money, but if you want to raise
some money and try to get new furniture or try
to get new bedding or whatever. I mean, it was amazing. Yes,
in fact, she's a good sport about this story. But
she was embarrassed at first. There was a little nest
(36:49):
of mice living in her couch. When we went to
move it that we found were like throw it out.
And then we're like, we don't have a couch. We
don't have a couch for her. And somebody went to
RC Willie. The furnitures are like this is like an
couple hours before they're coming home. We're like, we gotta
we need to we need a couch for this family.
(37:09):
Someone go top to you know if this is that
type of cast, or just see if they'll donate something.
Tell them what we're doing, Invite them to come over.
We're gonna welcome them home here. Maybe they'll give us
a deal. We'll scrape up the money. Just we gotta
have a couch for this family. This couch shows up
people through the grape vine. A girl runs into someone
she knew at the store. Oh, she knew the manager,
(37:30):
and they end up this beautiful sectional. We're we're moving
it in like minutes before they came home. It was Oh,
it was a nice sectional for her whole fan they
were movie people. They you know, they just had one
little family room, but that couch was like heaven for them.
They loved it was brand new and had the reclining
(37:53):
you know, everybody had a spot and they just love
this couch. And it came in. It was one of
those level houses back in the eighties. Everybody had that.
And we're moving this couch in over the you know,
banister minutes before they're coming home. And it fit perfectly,
and it was just one of those moments of like,
this is just a little miracle. This is I mean
(38:15):
talk about that happened every time, over and over. Just
everything just came together at the last minute and was
so perfect. I could be here for hours telling you
guys stories about that. So amazing.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
They come down from the mountain, come down. We've had mountain,
and truthfully, just the day in Park City probably would
have been a mountain.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Well, Bill, you get this because you grew up as
a single you know, with a single mom. Even I
didn't understand that because my kids screw up. This what
I realized later, what brought tears to her eyes the
most was that day with her kids.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
She got to have a stress free day and she
got to show her kids herself, yes, something that was
more than it is. When you're in that stressful position,
your children don't even get to see who you really are.
I don't even could see why you were once a
desirable human being to be around, because you.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Were such a Yes, you nailed it.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
It's true. And so on that day, though, with all
the stress gone and not having to worry about any
of it, her kids got to experience her Yes, which
is amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
And what you just said kind of came to my mind,
you know, as they're coming home, what are we doing
here when they come home? You know, how what do
we want to have happened here? And I had that thought.
I wanted her kids, not that they didn't know, because
I knew they knew. She had a reputation of having
the best birthday parties in the neighborhood. She always had
(39:50):
the kids over. She was as mess best as she could.
She was the fun mom, you know, working three jobs
and crazy as could be. But you know, we I
wanted her kids to know just how amazing she was,
you know, sort of from someone else, sort of a moment,
because that's another part that I feel like kids lose,
(40:11):
is they're not having a mom and dad sort of
edify each other and brag on the other one a
little and show, you know, it gives these kids. My
dad did that for my mom and vice versa. And
I remember what it did to me as a kid,
thinking I have a really great dad, because my mom
told me that all the time. Do you know what
(40:32):
a great dad? You know, how lucky you kids are
to have such a great dad. He puts you first,
and I thought, wow, I do and I adored my
dad because of that.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
But but the problem is that divorced parents kids don't
hear that.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
You don't never hear it. And here is a mother
who is doing more than most, but her kids see.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
The chaos and they don't see her essence and her.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
House is a mess, and they don't why is our
house messy? And there's just why why is our house
falling apart?
Speaker 1 (41:03):
So forget, forget, beyond this. I'm dying to understand. When
they roll up from the mountain and they hit the door,
does she must just smelt.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
It's a beautiful moment. So another another little thing that
happened during this time when I was before, I had
talked out loud and said I want to do this,
and I was thinking about it. I laid down with
my daughter to get it to fall asleep one night
and I was flipping through my phone and this video
came on and just so happened. It's a video from
someone called David Archiletta. The song is called Glorious and
(41:41):
it's such a powerful video you have to listen to it.
It's our themes. I knew in that moment before I
got off her bed that that was calling to me
because the whole song is everyone plays a piece, everyone
has a gift. Just follow your heart. You'll figure out
what it is. Just do it. And I had been
(42:01):
feeling I need to do something, and that song spoke
to me. I got up, I got went downstairs. I
had my boys pull it up on the TV. Watch
this with me. We're doing this, We're gonna do this.
This is such a you know, this is song is
talking to me right now. So that has been our
theme song. So when the family comes home, David Archiletta glorious, Well,
(42:24):
we have a little dance party before actually, because we
are working hard. It is not glamorous. We're exhausted and
telling everybody the family's about to come. And so we
wanted to be out on the street. We wear red
red balloons. We wanted him to feel like start the
first one, yeah, the first the first time we were
(42:46):
blue because I had grown up with me and I
said no. After that, I changed it to red. Red's
a powerful I said no, exactly because it's a powerful color.
So the first time, but I knew the feeling. I
wanted him to feel like Rockster come pulling down the
street and they see everybody and we're having fun. So
we had a guy that was a friend. He's a painter.
(43:07):
He had a DJ equipment, right okay, so he would
get everybody doing theyj He was awesome painter slash slash.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Of course he is amazing. Yeah, all right, so they
get there. I really want to when the door opened,
what does she say?
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Well, we if you hear the song. So I'm always like,
we stop the dance party music as they're pulling up
the street and we hit that song and it is
powerful right off the bat. You just have to hear it.
And they pull up and it's just a moment. No
one's saying anything.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Our producers worth the salt during when this is actually
being listened to, We'll have that song in the background.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
You gotta play the song.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
You can see Alex there. I'm not sure if you'll
pull it off or not.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Yeah, well, if you can, it'd be worth it. You
got it. I know.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
I actually will reach out to him and don't cut
this out. That is you being weak. Okay, go ahead,
the songs playing, the painters playing, yes, and.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
It's it's just love. It's just love, that's all it is.
It's random strangers hugging these people. Some people you know,
some people you feel like you know the family, even
if you don't, because you've been there working you all day,
all night.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
You've gotta tell me. The kids are sprinting to the
rooms to see what's well.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
We don't let them go in just yet. We have
this moment. We're listening to the whole song, hugging everybody.
It's just to feel, take it in, feel the moment here,
feel these people love you.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
Human beings doing something it is another human just good
old fashioned, just because it's.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Your turn, not because you're the pity story. It's just
your turn. It's your neighbors here helping you. It's your day.
And I wanted them to feel that and just take
it in. So that's what that song is. During the
whole song, it's just everybody hugging each other. The kids
have painted welcome home, you know, and there's balloons and
everybody's just in the red. And then when the song's over,
(45:22):
whoever nominated the family takes the mic for a second,
just a second and tell us why why did you?
Because that's our only rule, with our little miracles. You
can't nominate yourself. That's that's really the rule. Yeah, but otherwise,
you know, it doesn't have to look a certain way.
You don't have to need all these not every story
(45:43):
is a dramatic story. Some are some are just tell
us why you nominated the family, tell us a little.
And I also wanted that to be a moment for
these kids to hear why their mom is so great.
You know why why all these people are here, not
just we're here for you. You kids are amazing because
like you said, you didn't choose this. Your life's a
(46:06):
little tougher, but you're amazing and your mom, you know
what she does for you. So it was like a
moment for someone they knew to tell the amazing things
that their mom does for them that maybe they don't see,
and why everybody wanted to be here. And you know
what when they heard it was your family. Look at
(46:27):
all these people. Everybody heard about you and wanted to
be here because you guys are awesome and you're special
and you deserve it and we just want you to
nothing else. You feel that every day of you ever
wonder if you're loved? You remember today, I.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Mean for the mom I'm hearing this and you know,
for some it could be life changing, but for all
it would have to be life affirming. Yeah, it would
have to be life affirming for a single mom fighting
and struggling all the things we talked about, the anxiety,
the bills, the fear, the shame and everything else to
(47:05):
be affirmed as I'm a human being with value and
although I'm struggling, these children are proof of my value
and affirmation, and it's an opportunity just for them to
feel that. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty special. Would you please
tell me what happens when they go in the house.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
Yeah, it's awesome. So we learned you can't let everybody,
you know, we get typically lots of hundred people. We've
had so many people. You can't let everyone run in.
So our rule is if you worked on the room
specific to go to the room, you get a head start.
You get to go in the room, so you get
to see that.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
So you get to show them around what you've done.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
We've got to where if the mom wants to say something,
but we never you know, half the time they'll want
to say something. Half the time it's overwhelming, So we
just let them go through, you know, and I'm not
usually the one going through. It's it's kind of the
one that nominated them, who you know, has a little
been a comfort. You don't want a bunch of strangers,
you know. I usually always meet the families prior, but
(48:06):
I like to let that be their moment to walk through. Plus,
whoever nominates them, we're like, hey, you're not just nominating
them when we're doing everything. You're in this with us,
right If you really want this for your friend, your sister,
your brother, you know, you're in it with us. Yeah.
So they're a big part of the project, and so
they're they're front and center and leading them through and
it's just amazing.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
And so so let me ask something. Do you and
during this process you kind of step back?
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Yeah, I don't know why I've found myself. I kind
of just you know, sometimes I say stuff when they
first come or whatever, but I'm I kind of watch
and I hang back a little bit and just kind
of take it all in. I Mean, it's overwhelming. I'm
not a real emotional person, but that's my moment to
kind of just be like, because I'm exhausted. It's a lot,
you know, this month is nine years we've been doing it,
(48:56):
and there's a lot of times going in I'm like
this the last time I'm doing this, so and I'm
just taking it in at that point, and I'm always
so grateful that we didn't decide to quit, because that
thought comes in my mind.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
Every year was this. Do you remember thirty.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
It's nine years ago now, so what are we in?
Is it twenty thirteen?
Speaker 1 (49:18):
Yeah, twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
I was Halloween.
Speaker 1 (49:20):
And so after this little experiment of yours, you said,
we're going to do this again.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
Yeah. I really wanted to do it again.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
It's a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
What was interesting now we had them filming it for
the local TV thing, right, Oh, yeah, that's right, And
I wondered, will we really have this much help if
we don't.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Have the TV.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
So I didn't know if is that why everyone was
so good about helping out, you know, because they want
to see themselves on a People knew it was on TV.
We're going to say your business if you helped out.
Obviously that's going on the little clip, but I knew
we definitely wanted to do it again. When it came
together and the show actually aired, it was a little disappointing.
(50:07):
Because the guy who put together the show, he had
highlighted his contractors that were part of his show, but
they weren't the ones that did the work, and he
did a little editing to where they went back after
and added some things that weren't really Do you hear.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
That, Alex, Please don't screw the show up all your stuff.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
Yeah, it did it. It does hurt the whole deal.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Don't do that.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Let it be his thing.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
That's right, that's how we're going to do this.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
We had a big party, and I remember we all
just like a little bit like, oh, that's not really
how it went down, you know, And I felt bad
and I had to have a conversation with him.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
You're saying that sometimes TV portrays things as they're not.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
Yeah, I've found that out. Yeah, and sometimes they want
to build up the peace people. I said, well, wait, what.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
What about the people that actually did the work.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
They didn't, They didn't actually care that their name, But
you can't not put their name on and put you
he said, yeah, unfortunately I know. He said, yeah, I
have to because they're part of my group.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Happens all too much. Yeah, twenty thirteen, you do this thing?
How long till the next one.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
So let's see that was October. Gosh, what's crazy is
right after you do want it happens every time somebody
tells about another family.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Yeah, right, for sure.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
So I want to say it was like February.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
So how many months?
Speaker 2 (51:36):
A couple months, few months?
Speaker 1 (51:38):
Yeah, and we're from twenty thirteen. When you get an
epiphany that you're going to call a thing little miracles,
and you have three weeks to kind of pull us off,
and you don't even know what this is, and it
ends up being the experience that we just described. Now
it's twenty twenty two, and you do four of these?
(51:59):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (52:00):
We do one every quarter typically for yeah, four generally,
sometimes we've done more.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
Which since October of twenty fourteen, the numbers I have
here are one thousand, eight hundred and twenty seven volunteers,
eighty six families served, twenty seven community serves, and ninety
eight hundred and forty four volunteer hours, all of which
(52:29):
have basically enriched the lives of a whole bunch of
kids who desperately need to have something enriching happening in
their lives, and a whole bunch of divorced spouses who
are struggling with anxiety and shame and concern and fear
(52:52):
and worry, and all of a sudden, they get a
day that their children get to see them for the
people they are, and they get to come home to
a better place to live. Amen, all because some normal
kid that grew up in Colorado who experienced a little
(53:13):
tough life decided, you know, we don't have to go
do missions in Brazil. There's there's an opportunity to do
a mission right here in my hometown. And you put
together an army of just normal folks who wanted to
give and serve just for the simple edification of another
human being that needed it. Is that what I'm hearing.
Speaker 2 (53:35):
That's what you're hearing.
Speaker 1 (53:41):
And that concludes part one of our conversation with Tiani,
notably with our normal music, because our weak producer clearly
didn't get permission to use the music that Tianni was
talking about, so you got the basic I don't know
what this kind of music is when we leave, whatever
that stuff is. Anyway, I hope you'll listen to part
(54:04):
two that's now available. Her story really does just keep
getting better. But if you don't make sure you join
an army of normal folks at normalfolks dot us and
sign up to become a member of the movement. By
signing up, you receive a weekly email and short episode
summaries in case you happen to miss an episode, or
you may just prefer reading about our incredible guest guys. Together,
(54:26):
we can change this country, but it starts with you.
I'll see in Part two.
Host
Bill Courtney
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Dateline NBC
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