November 27, 2025 • 35 mins
This week, Trent and Patrick meet with Will Jones, President & CEO of Thompson Child & Family Focus—a not-for-profit changing lives through early childhood, family stability, and mental health support. Will shares his passion for helping families and the power of community and timely support.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, and welcome to a Home with Roby. I'm
Patrick mcaac from Roby Commercial and Services along with Trent
Haaston from the Roby Family of Companies. We are your hosts.
We got a packed house leading up to Thanksgiving. Got
Ford in the studio, We've got Knocks in the studio,
We've got e Up in the house. And then we
got our guest Will who's chilling? Drent chilling? I like
(00:21):
his attire. Look just have a cool shout like that.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I thought I had to black black get up on
the day, great tones, but I like it.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You look good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
He can't say nothing, which on me is speechless for
the first ten minutes.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
That's when we get all our jabs in and then
we lectually come in and start talking usest, Hey, so
what do we got going on here? I mean, I
guess school's out. You can clearly tell we've got Ford
and Knox in the studio. I have two good radio
memories of both these two. One is on on Ford
I Want Embarrassing too Much, where he brought a bunch
of Max Matchbox cars in at the WBT studio and
(00:57):
he were hanging out on the floor and he gassed
on you. I wasn't gonna say that, but you definitely
got us looked down and you were giggling and all
of a sudden took about. It took about two to
three seconds for that cloud to embark upon the producer
and me, but it did, and your dad just kept
(01:17):
talking like nothing happened. So that was a good story.
And then you know, wh' when we go with the
one with NOx during COVID when Knox was born, Trent
did the show from the hospital, H and not. You
let out a giant cry, like a rah cry, still
cry and H we set. Look he's got Trent's pipes. Well, uh, my.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Daughter, my set third daughter, Piper. We call her loud pipes,
big rims if that means anything, but uh, she's got them.
But yeah, we were at home and I was working,
and then I was like, man, they've never seen the
new studio, the iHeart Studio.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
That was pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And we got to go eat at G's over by
the airport. I think it's Circle G's or just Geez.
I don't know exactly, it's just Geez. Okay, when the
ate a little bit, you know, some of my favorite
memories of my dad are him taking me to restaurant,
us cutting up, hanging out, so to try to do
that when I can and they're here, but we're recording
(02:17):
two shows today. So once I bit it off, I
told my wife, I was like, well, let me see.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
So Knox has the iPad playing some basketball.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I think I feel like this will probably keep us
out of trouble post show too, which is to get him,
keep him entertained.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And then I'm gonna go by the office when we
leave here for a little while, just really upset them.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
No, there's some trouble they get into. I'm sure they
can find a bull candy or two around that place. Well,
you know, under my credenza in my office, I have
all those toys because when we moved in, our office
was twenty thirteen, so Tatum would have been six, Rolling
would have been five, and Piper would have been three.
So I got the wooden trains and stuff. Ford likes
(03:00):
to play with that stuff. You weren't even a thought them. Boy,
remember you born twenty and fifteen. I guess okay, because
you'll be eleven in January. Holy smoke, Ford, get the
swing that microphone over there and give everybody a what's up?
What's up there?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
He had on his uh.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
He's looking tag in that flight real hats.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well, he's got his rugby reality hat on, He's got
his cornhole pitching for Wish, his ruby shirt on, got
his blue jeans, got his Ford belt, custom leather, and
his cowboy boots. But he had on a real cowboy
get up a tire and he went out. He was like,
I didn't realize this. He come down and said, hey,
when are we leaving? I said about eleven forty, said
(03:50):
then that I wanted to leave a little earlier. I
couldn't find him. He was up up the road chopping firewood.
Come down, Come down with my neighbor, Mike, the maleman.
Mike come down and uh, I said, what are you doing?
He said, I had a change. Man, it's hot, had
all the sleeve shirt.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
You were what do you swinging a sledgehammer? Sledge hammer?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
What kind of did we obviously know who doesn't chop?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well? Yeah, need you get the little the wedge piece
hit with the sledgehammer? Does this come on? Now? Well?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I split wood with a mall. Uh, but my mall's
a little heavy for forward. So uh he started using
our acts a little lighter, and uh, he's been begging
if the handle had a fiberglass handle. The handle broke
about six months ago, and he's been begging me for
a new one.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
So we went to load loads and got him a
got him a new a. Ford, you cut yourself over there, buddy,
he's ready. Oh he's bleeding. Oh we got our first
blood of the day show. I like it. Well, I
like it. Yes, he's gonna get mad at you. You better
be careful.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
He needs some loation. He's got dry elbows.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Can be bleeding, can be leading. Yeah, I gotta say something.
I mean, I don't think you should talk about cutting, uh,
you know, splitting wood and trial elbows and loosh. I
just kind of contraduce itself, doesn't it. Well, I don't
know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
This is the man that uh we got the knife
story from Charles Blevins.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Uh has a little knife collection.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
He showed me his uh. He I'm gonna give Ford
some props. He Uh, he's cleaned his room last night,
organized all his hats. My man has two full hat drawers.
Where we go from, Hey, buddy, it's not that big
a deal. It's Okay, you're good. Yeah, well it's had
(05:42):
everything organized. Had the little money money box, he said,
I mean much. He has his wallet in there, so
how much he had one dollar billies that I got
a lot of gift cards though.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Those are as good as cash. All I see the
bell buckle, that is sweet. Yeah, forget your name, just
looking in the mire that at the.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Southern Christmas Show last year, right and this year, I'm
gonna give you some process. We went back as kind
of a family tradition for us. He used his twenty
dollars that he was allotted and bought uh a gift.
I think gg is our grandmother. His grandmother will go,
(06:21):
we'll already have the gift by the time she listens
to the show. But he used his money to buy her,
buy her a gift.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
That's cool of you, man, Good job. Big ups on
you to do something for somebody else, not what you buy.
I bet you bought a bunch of candy, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
He bought a gun, a wooden gun that has as
like a rotation bands shooter, so you can put six rubber.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Band semi automatic. Say, really, they've been shoot the dogs.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
The best used toy we've had in a while, as
has gotten maximum use in the last three days.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You should hold on, hold on, hold on, you said,
Ford shoots. Really, what what does Wiley do when he
gets hit with the rubber band? He takes it.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
He's a he's in a beatdown dog.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
It's sad.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
While he's while he's beat down, unless he sees a
delivery man, then he's then he's hungry or an electrician.
Ford was watching Sandlot Sandlot this morning. If you've ever
seen that movie, but uh, that has a big dog.
While he gets all excited when he sees that dog,
he tries to jump up and bite.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
It's like the bab what's the dog's name? The beast,
the beast Hercules. That's a good movie. That's a great
Ford said, this.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Is an awesome movie. You ever watched this movie? I
was fifteen. I looked it up nineteen eighty three. I
think that movie was a little I was a little
old older for that movie.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
I watched it.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
We probably watched that a thousand times. And you're four
years older than me. He said, like, yeah, if I
had been said that was about three years past. If
you were three years younger, it had been it had
been hot was funny. I was impressed with your movie
ACU when they're young Man. Baby, Hi Baby Ruthie signed it,
(08:15):
Baby Baby, ruth Baby, Ruthie, Baby Ruthie. And don't forget
Roeby Services is your one stop source for all your
electrical heating, cooling, plumbing and handyman needs. Keep it easy
and get it all done by one. Roby servicesnow dot com.
That's Roby Services now dot com. All right, Patrick, why
don't you tee up our guests today? Yeah, Trent, I
think you're gonna you're gonna like this one. We've got
(08:36):
Will Jones from Thompson. Uh. They do a much a
bunch of bunch of things that are positive for the community.
Actually more than just this community, across several states. I
met Will really had a chance to get to know
him and talk to him a little bit more and
understand Thompson at a Panther game with iHeart of course,
and I just thought his story and what they're doing
is so fascinating and touching that it'd be really great
(08:58):
that we could maybe help get the message out on
what it is all are looking for and be just
to hear your story.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, thanks for having me, guys, are much appreciated. Yeah, Thompson. Actually,
we're going to celebrate one hundred and forty years to
Charlotte Market in twenty twenty six, so we're coming up
to one forty. It's a big celebration for us. But
what what was and what is is two different things.
So you know, it's interesting about Thompson. Thompson actually is
on the trail of history on the two seventy seven Beltway.
(09:26):
If you remember the where the Trader Joe's is and
the Big Best Buy and the all around two seventy
Politan that actually was the orphanage at Thompson one hundred
and thirty some odd years ago. And it's interesting to
run an organization that's part of the inner fabric of Charlotte.
But as you can imagine, the needs of the community
(09:47):
that we live in and other communities have changed drastically
over one hundred and forty years, and even more so
probably since the pandemic. High level, what Thompson does is
we do three primary things. We do services in and
around foster care. So we recruit, license and support foster
homes and children that are placed in those homes that
(10:08):
are removed from their family and loved ones. We provided
behavioral health or mental health services to children families in
multiple communities. And then we try to do our best
to work with schools, early childhood education centers, community organizations
to prevent children from going deeper into systems like behavioral
health systems, juvenile justice systems, and child welfare systems. And
(10:30):
we've been blessed. Looking over at the show name the
Entrepreneur's Blueprint, We've taken an entrepreneurial approach to growing out
the business. We've run twenty percent year over a year
for the last six years.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
We're now in five states, have almost a six hundred
employees impacting about four thousand youth a year.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Now, that's wonderful. Two things, you know, when you just
mentioned the location of the original orphanage on the Greenway,
there there is I think there's a couple of statues
if I'm not correct, mistaken to pay homage to that. One.
And two, my wife is an LCSW in Mecklenburg County Schools.
I think I might have mentioned that too. You so
very familiar with your work and the office that you
(11:10):
guys have on Windover. Is that the corporate tell us
what that is?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yeah? It's interesting because a lot of people in the
Charlotte market actually see that office more than they do
actually corporate, so if you will, But that is a
family services center, you know, off of Windover Road between
Randolph and Monroe, and there we provide a lot of
our community mental health services, outpatient treatment, We do parent
education classes for the community. We support grandparents that are
(11:39):
supporting their grandkids that are raising their grandkids in that community.
Our foster care staff work out of that office. But
that's really kind of a family services center where we
try to do our best to provide services that strengthen
the families. Whatever that looks like for an individual. And
actually our corporate office is sitting on sixty five acres
in Matthew's.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Okay, oh Man, sixty five acres, sixty five acres and
about fifteen fifteen different buildings.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Goodness gracious.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
So what'd you say, one hundred and forty years old
this year coming up coming up to it don't look
like old. And it was an orphanage originally, yeah, okay,
And how was it founded one hundred and forty year
It was.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Actually founded by the Episcopal Church really in Charlotte. You know,
there's a lot about the history that we know and
a lot that we don't know. But it was founded
by the church, and the Orphanage is one hundred and
thirty nine years ago. There was a there were there
were a lot of different organizations in Charlotte and beyond
they had orphanages. We had a very similar that we
have today. We have a lot of we had a
lot of children not not having family members to raise them.
(12:47):
So that's how it started. You know, the Orphanage as
it stands is really the need for something like that
has changed drastically over that time period, which I think
is a blessing, But unfortunately there's a need for other
other places for children to go.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
So now it's more foster I mean, you try to
place them with families. I know at our church I
go to Still Creek Presbyterian and at Pleasant Hills we
have a couple families that really do a lot with
fostering children and they bring them around and integrate them
with the church. Is wonderful.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah, we believe, you know, and I think data shows
us to be true. A child is going to thrive
in a family like setting, not a group home setting,
an orphanage setting. We do group home services on the
kind of traumatized behavioral health side, short term stays for children,
but not like the old orphanage where a child could
actually live in an orphanage for a long period of time,
up seventeen years possibly.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
But you know, the needs in our community have changed
and we now know that that's not in the best
interest of children.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Wow. Tell us a little bit about I mean, how
did you get into this field of work and kind
of walk us through the history of will.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, you know, I would say I kind of stumbled
into the work, to be honest with you, and only
I went to college in Orlando, Florida, the University of
Central Florida, and I was engaged, me married, I was
applying to be a federal law enforcement officer into one
of the federal academies, and I also applied for a
(14:15):
master's program, all at the same time. So I figured
out one of those three things would work, you know.
So at the same time I needed to work, and
just applied for a job working with runaway and homeless
youth for the county there, Orange County in Orlando, making
seven dollars and seven cents an hour. I know it
was a lot of money. It's odd that I've never
(14:37):
forgotten that hourly wage. I've only been on the workforce
for thirty three years, and I've never forgotten that seven
oh seven an hour, So I know, and I was,
I was a heavy hitter back then.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
That seven made the difference, right, I mean that was
funny how those those wages were back then. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
The cool thing about it, the benefits were free, you know,
the employee at that point time, we didn't have to contribute,
so I had good benefits also. But what was really
cool is actually paid me money to hang out and
play basketball and interact with young people. And I was
still a young person at the time, twenty one. And
while all there's other three goals I had, you know,
(15:12):
I got accepted to a federal law enforcement academy. I
got married, and I got accepted into my master's program.
So I had a choice to make. Do I do
I work on that marriage and do what my wife
at the time wanted me to do, which was not
go off and be a federal law enforcement officer, or
do I go back and go back and get my
master's degree. And I decided to get my master's degree
(15:33):
in criminal justice while I work with that risk youth
and and just never turned back. So had some really
early interactions with youth that they share their story about.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You know.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I talk a lot about a young man named Darnell
and he just said, mister, will you know I didn't
get to pick where I was born, you know, And
I didn't think about it at the time, Like, we
don't get to pick what family were born into. We
don't get to pick what community we're born into. We
don't get to pick what zip code were born into.
And that's stuff called me in a lot of ways.
So really work with that young man to really demonstrate
that somebody cared about him, and it was very intentional.
(16:07):
He's now he's now a social worker. Actually cool as
an adult. So it's a pretty cool story. We stay
in contact.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Wow, that is awesome. So are you from? Where are you?
Are you from Florida?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I raised in Florida. My dad was in the military.
Raised on the East Coast if you're familiar with Florida,
a little town called Satellite Beach, just south of Cocoa Beach, Florida.
Went to college and the University Center Florida in Orlando,
and then I worked there as an adult for eighteen
years before I moved to North Carolina thirteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Did you move here to work for Thompson?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I did not move a talk from Thompson. We really
wanted to be in the in the Carolinas. We had
family here, we had visited here, We had already identified
a potential church here. The only thing I needed to
identify as a living of how am I going to
work here? And a short story is that I ended
up working for a Florida based company got me able
(16:57):
to actually live here to work in North Carolina. If
you're familiar with Ecker Drugs big footprint in North Carolina, well,
Jack and Ruth Eckert also had a big passion for
at risk youth and they decided to start a foundation
at the time to work with that rith use called
eckerd Youth Alternatives. They did a lot of wilderness camps
here in Carolina's so when I got the job to
(17:20):
be the eventual chief operating officer of that company, they said,
you can live anywhere that we do work in North
Carolina at that point in time was the second biggest
footprint Charlotte. Here we come, Yep, yep, waxaw but you know,
nobody knew Waxa on Florida. So I said, Charlotte. Some
people still in wax saw Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
We got the furniture commercials man for back in those days.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
That was all.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
That's right, that's great. Well that's cool. So you uh,
Eckerd was acquired. Is that right that they were? I
think it was. I grew up. Was our neighborhood drugs
we had maybe we had rev Code. Do you remember
rev Code?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
You say it, I don't think I would have ever
named that with them. Well, that was our little pharmacy.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
And I as a kid, I grew up outside Atlanta,
Marriat of Georgia. It was rev Co, which I think
was purchased by Eckerd and then right Aid got them.
So okang, big roll up there.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
So thirteen years ago you moved to Waxhall, yep, and
you've worked for the charitable arm of the Eckerd.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Family, ECRED Youth Alternatives. We were I would say we
were probably a one point five per center and as
it pertains a non for profit healthing human services work.
We were about three hundred million in revenue, that's wild,
and we were working in about ten to eleven different states,
and then by the time I left there, we had
grown into fifteen to sixteen different states and about three
hundred and fifty million in annual revenue. Pretty big operation.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
That's why you have this entrepreneurial but growth. I was
getting ready to go with the entrepreneur question too. I mean,
so when do you talk about this growth? Is this
through Merger's acquisitions, organic, A little bit of both.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah, it's a little bit of both, but primarily organic,
you know. And the not for profit. We're we're tax
status not for profit, so you know that's you know,
we're very clear on what that means. That's a tax status,
not not a goal. You know, not for profit doesn't
make any organization move well. But we also knew we
needed to scale. You know, it's through scale you can
(19:17):
do more for your people, more for your customers, sure,
more for your mission, anything and everything on the business.
And you guys understand this clearly. So that was super
important for us to do that. So we've taken a
real business model approach to growing the mission and the
impact of the organization.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Man that.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, we we're a family business, third generation, seventy fifth
year this year twenty five, nineteen fifty.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
It's not when I was born, little baby, see y'all.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
But but at our town halls, we do a quarterly
town hall and we get questions from some of our
our staff out in the field and stuff like why
do you want to grow, and we try to explain
to them we can add more value.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
To you if we grow correctly. And that's to your
point on scaling.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I think it is, uh, you want to give better
customer service. And in y'all's world is to is to
youth and their families and kids, and and would you
say grandparents that are raising them.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I think that is so cool.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, man, So you're in six states now.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
We're in five states now. When I got to Thompson
a little over eight and a half years ago, we
were primarily in the Charlotte area, and now we're probably
we're probably coast of mountains and both Carolinas. We do
work in the entire state of Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky, I.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Said, righty, from Louisville.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
You know, Bowling Green, Kentucky. And then we're in my
home state of Florida and have been for four years
in the Tampa Bay area and We just moved into
the Orlando area, a little little county called Seminole County,
which is just on the right next to Orange County,
which is Orlando.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Wow. So when you say you go into a new county, like,
tell us about that is? How like? Well, for example, Seminole,
did did you just go and open a brick and mortar?
Did you hire some talent? Well? And how does that work?
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Yeah? And you could do all those different things. We are.
We're a little different instnrat. A lot of people kind
to hear the word non for profit and it was
funny out A neighbor asked me the other day, are
you a nonprofit or a non for profit? And I
was scratching my head. I was like, yes, it really
is the same thing. But that's really that's again that's
the tax status, but not the goal. But we're basically
at Thompson we're a healthing human services organization. Yeah. And
(21:31):
in healthing human services, there's generally three types of business
that do work in that space. One is a non
for profit, which we are one. Two is a for profit.
There's there's organizations, there's there's pe VC. Everything that's going
on in your world is going on in my world
on the for profit and then government also does a
lot of services directly, but we do a lot of
(21:53):
RFP work. You know, we respond to requests for proposals. Yeah, okay,
that's not the best way and easiest way to grow
our footprint, but we do some RFP works. In Orlando,
we went in on the back of an RFP.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Like to the public schools or something like those lines.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
With the well with the there they have a privatized
child Well it's almost like the Department of Social Service
especially private entity that kind of runs the systems there.
And it was a competitive procurement, but it really goes
back to our approach. I'm assuming very actually, I don't
even assume.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I know.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
It's your philosophy. It's quality begets quantity. Yeah, you do
quality work and people want you to do more of
it in other places and also where you're at, so
we really focus on quality care.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah, man, quality begets quantity. That's the flywheel we like
to talk about.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Once.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Once you're doing good and you're providing priceless service.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Uh in whatever world you're in.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Uh you guys health in human services, helping families and kids.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Man, Yeah, it's it's it's a double bottom line, right,
So we want to make enough money we can reinvest
back into the mission, into the communities and in two children,
especially this time of year. And I'll talk about that
in a second, but it's we want to grow our impact.
Where there's a lot of non for profits, they're either
they're either running in place other walking backwards. We have
(23:15):
this philosophy we want to be a mission that's on mission.
That means we're moving into unmet need and so that
means growth. So we want to grow our impact and
grow into communities that need us.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
So how how prevalent, how many homeless kids that need
foster care are there? I mean, I'm it's kind of
out of sight, out of mind. I hate to say
it that way. I mean, hopefully I'm teeing you up
for a learning uh. But now that folks at our
(23:46):
church are doing it is at the forefront of what
I'm seeing.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
And you know, Biblically we're called we're called to care
for widows and orphans. Right, So I'm a believer, I
go to church, so biblically we're called to do that.
So we we find a lot of families in the
faith orientation and people that are believers in Jesus Christ
in particular, but other faiths as well. But here's the
dynamic in North Carolina. I'm glad you're saying about we
(24:12):
just got to open our eyes. Yeah, I mean, you know,
look at where we're standing now. We go down a
half mile to the left. There's all sorts of problem.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
It's crazy.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
I mean, we own and operate a early childhood development
center on West Wolvard and Clanton, less than five minutes
from here, and you go down there, there's no there's
no teeter, there's no publics, there's no drug store, so
there's a food desert going on there, there's a service desert.
You can imagine. There's problems everywhere in Charlotte. But in
reference to foster care, it's interesting there's actually give or
(24:41):
take on any given day. There's over ten thousand children
in the foster care system in North Carolina alone. Wow,
ten thousand. And here's the sad thing about it, there's
only over five thousand foster homes in North Carolina. And
in order for the system to work well, you actually
don't need to have a foster home for every child,
need to have multiple foster homes for every child, because
(25:02):
not every child is right for every home, and not
every home it's right for every child. So we're probably
about fifteen thousand foster homes away from being able to
completely meet the need of those ten thousand children on
any given day.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
And this is a big part of the message you're
trying to personally get out to the community through levels
of mediums like my heart. I mean, that's that's one
of the reasons you're you guys are so prevalent here,
which I mean, think about that trend that's fifteen thousand.
I mean, just five kids is too many. We just
came off of our annual corn hole tournament for the
Make a Wish Foundation and it's you know, it's it's
(25:38):
serving a similar dynamic of people, but in a totally
different way. And say that, I mean, the whole goal
of Make a Wish trends kind of like to get
themselves out of business.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, to provide a wish for every child with life
threatening and illness. Hopefully no child has life threaten and
illness one day. Hopefully that's the world we can we
can and see in our lifetime.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Man.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
So we're four x or three x short of the
number of foster homes needed in North Carolina to adequately
provide for the What did you say, twenty.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Thousand over ten thousand, over ten thousand.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And I get it. What I mean, that's scary. I
mean it would be if you've never done been a
foster parent before I had a foster home. I mean,
there's probably a lot of misconceptions on what that really means.
And I mean that's it's a huge commitment. And maybe
if you were someone that was considering doing that and
they're listening to this podcast, how would you kind of
help them to sort of get over that hurdle of
(26:37):
really because I can't imagine it can't be probably one
of the most rewarding things you could do, But it's
the same part, it's it's scary. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
The first and foremost shameless plug, right, I'm gonna take
the opportunity at leave got a Thompson CFF dot org.
When you go to our website, there's basically three calls
to action. One of those is to learn more about
becoming a foster parent, and through that we will edge
cage you honestly about the difficulties and the rewards for
(27:04):
you and your family as it retains of fostering, and
there are both depending on your circumstance, depending on your
family makeup. You know, you had mentioned five children that
are in the home, I would probably say probably not
a great time, right, So yeah, I shared it. I
also have five kids, three of them and it's not
a great time, you know, just because we have a
lot of a lot of moving parts. But you know,
(27:28):
if you don't have a great foundation within your within
your marital relationship, not a good time. Amen, Like you
have to get that right first before you foster. So
we're really honest with people. Yes, we want to grow
foster homes. We want to grow foster homes that stay
with us. So the interesting thing about our data says
is if you become a foster parent at Thompson, you
stay a foster parent at Thompson actually serve kids for
(27:49):
an average of three years. So interestingly, enough people that
fund our work to the following HALTHROPICSID they say, you
seem to seem spending a lot of money on marketing,
and my responses, yes, but not enough. So in our space,
marketing is almost an unheard of thing. But yet we
keep on saying we're trying to recruit, Well, why do
you recruit somebody if they don't know who you are,
(28:11):
what you do, and how well you do it. So
that's why marketing is such a big part of our
kind of business model when it pertains to foster parents,
and it's so critical that you get out of the
box and think about business business like systems to in
order to grow your business. So that becomes big for us.
But what we try to do ground ourselves as honesty, transparency,
(28:32):
be genuine with people. We don't just want to foster
home to say we have a foster home that's no
use to children. We want to have that foster home
that understands what they're getting into, goes through, that is
completely aware of the good, the bad, and the potential
ugly of that situation.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Wow, very cool, that is awesome. What I mean, what
is your industry? Our industries is you know, we have
a difficult time finding folks that want to do the
work that trades people in our world is very difficult.
Do you find the same thing? I mean, because this
is the type of work that you're doing, it's tough.
I mean, it's a lot dealing with a lot of emotions,
(29:10):
a lot of really hard topics. Is it difficult finding
qualified people in your industry? You know?
Speaker 3 (29:17):
I think since twenty twenty it's difficult for us. All yeah,
you know, I think that's but that's just in every industry,
you know, and I think the data prove that out.
It's all birth rate data, right. So you have this
many jobs in the world and this many people between
the ages of eighteen to sixty four, and in specific
industries like ours, where you have to be maybe be
a licensed social worker, maybe we need a nurse, maybe
we need somebody that's a psychiatrist. While all of a sudden,
(29:40):
instead of a one out of ten, it goes down
to point ten out of ten in that pool. So yes,
it's been an ongoing challenge for sure. And what we
try to do is very similar to other organizations. How
do we make ourselves more attractive than other people in
our space, whether it be again, this is where scale
comes important. People want to grow in their career. Well,
you can't skate, you can't row, you can't have opportunities
(30:01):
for upper mobility. If you don't grow, you've got to
scale learning and development. We're a big you mentioned your
fly will our fly will starts with good leadership. So
with good leadership, everything else gets better. It's kind of
that old Maxwell, I'm common about that. But we invest
heavily in a leadership development, those type of things. So
how do we grow people becomes a big part of
(30:21):
that attraction to people out there. But it's a challenge,
I mean, and I think it will be a challenge
for all of us in every industry, probably another five
or six years. Again, it's all based on birth rate data.
Now maybe AI helps in some ways, but I don't
think it's will replace the complete need.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Agreed, mam. When do you think about that?
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I'm so impressed. I agree it's such a need. I mean,
tall about my five children, your five children. I mean,
we have our faults in our house, but they're so
blessed to be where they're at. And ten thousand in
North Carolina alone that weren't born into a home with
(30:59):
a family, Yeah, had a family.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Well, think about it this time of year. This is
where the holiday season is so important to me as
a leader of an organization like Thompson because I've also
had an opportunity to travel a lot in different work.
So I traveled one hundred and eighty five nights a year.
As an example, if you guys have traveled away from
home without your spouse, without your kids, even sleeping in
an a bougie hotel, it's not comfortable. I don't get
my best night to sleep away from your home. So
(31:22):
you're in this kind of setting that's not your home,
it's uncomfortable. You're just not going to get your best
line to sleep. Just now, imagine you're a nine year
old kid that's been pulled away from your parents, their parents,
their loved ones, and they're staying in a stranger's home.
How does that feel to them?
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Right?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
So, this is what's happening in the holidays for us,
and this is why the holiday season is so important
for us, where if we're not careful, it could become
very very depressing, sad, and almost a retraumatization for children here.
So right now we're really working hard to make sure
we're providing a good holiday season for fifteen hundred kids.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, in December, it's amazing that you're right what we
take for granted. You know, just through my wife and
through your church, we we've had some exposure, but not
nothing compared to what what you're what you're seeing on
a daily basis. But I mean, it's right, it's just
right around the corner from here.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
You got to keep beating a drum, I mean, and
to your point on advertising and getting the word out
there and making people aware. That's why you're on here,
that's why you're doing the CEO podcast. Well, I'm gonna
put you on the spot. Wheel is such a great
story and you're so cool and thanks for being here.
What is one thing you've You've told told a lot
of a lot of good business h things, but what's
(32:39):
one thing that you live by in your life that
you carry with you in both in both business and life.
And then follow up give Thompson's a plug again for
our guests.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
You know, I think one thing I live by in
life is I'm blessed to get paid to actually impact lives.
But my life mission is just to be helpful, you know.
And that's our approach to our work. That's how approach
to our partnerships. Like you know, yes, we will work
with corporate partners to volunteer given those type of things.
But you'll never have me come and ask you for that.
(33:11):
What I'll do is ask you, Hey, what can I
do to help you? You know? So that's really important
to me as an individual, and that's super important. So
how can I be helpful to others is kind of
a big part of how I live my life outside
of work and within work and even within my family.
And that's that's a big life lesson. And do it
because you really want to be helpful, not and don't
(33:32):
do it because you want something in return, because that's
really sad. That's not what good human nature really is.
I think that's important. So that's one thing that kind
of sticks with me, and I will just an add
on there is kind of I always say this, most
of what I learned about leadership is wrong, you know
where I think a lot of times people think that
leading is doing the job of those that you're leading,
(33:53):
and that's really not leading. That's doing the job of
those that you're leading. So I learned that probably my
first twenty five years in leadership, and I realize I'm
going to get better from them if I lead them,
coach them, develop them, give them opportunities to do things. Fail,
learn from the failing. You know, the lady that started
the Monassory School program. If you're familiar with that. She said,
whatever I do for you, I take away from you.
(34:15):
So that's good leadership doing jobs. So that's another thing
I kind of carry on. And I do that with
my kids too, So it's not just again in the workplace,
it's it's how do I help my kids learn to
feed themselves? Not just give them fish every Friday. I
want them to learn how to fish on their behalf.
So that's big life lesson from me. And I just
(34:35):
think the other thing about Thompson is I think there's
a lot of organizations in the Charlotte market and then
the other force in North Carolina and the other four states.
We provide services too, and they all do a great job.
But we're playing golf here at Thompson. We're just trying
to get better and what we do, how we do
it with the people that we work with, and I
(34:56):
think that we take a little bit of a different
approach to it. We're not everybody's cup of tea. But
if you're interested in outcomes for children, outcomes for families,
if you're interested in volunteering, fostering giving, our model is different.
You don't give to keep the lights on, you give
to move the mission forward, and that's what makes Thompson
really special.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
I hear you, man, that's awesome. Give to keep moving forward.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
I hear you.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
And be helpful to others. What a great lesson. Well
go check it out. What's the website Thompson CFF dot org.
Thompson CFF dot org. Will thanks for being here.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I'm gonna give you my pointer. Go do the Golden
rule today. Treat others the way you want to be treated,
even when it's tough, even when they're not doing the
right thing. Treat them the way you want somebody treat
you when you're not doing the right thing, carry a
smile around on your face. Thanks for listening to At
Home with Ruby.
Good morning, and welcome to a Home with Roby. I'm
Patrick mcaac from Roby Commercial and Services along with Trent
Haaston from the Roby Family of Companies. We are your hosts.
We got a packed house leading up to Thanksgiving. Got
Ford in the studio, We've got Knocks in the studio,
We've got e Up in the house. And then we
got our guest Will who's chilling? Drent chilling? I like
(00:21):
his attire. Look just have a cool shout like that.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I thought I had to black black get up on
the day, great tones, but I like it.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You look good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
He can't say nothing, which on me is speechless for
the first ten minutes.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
That's when we get all our jabs in and then
we lectually come in and start talking usest, Hey, so
what do we got going on here? I mean, I
guess school's out. You can clearly tell we've got Ford
and Knox in the studio. I have two good radio
memories of both these two. One is on on Ford
I Want Embarrassing too Much, where he brought a bunch
of Max Matchbox cars in at the WBT studio and
(00:57):
he were hanging out on the floor and he gassed
on you. I wasn't gonna say that, but you definitely
got us looked down and you were giggling and all
of a sudden took about. It took about two to
three seconds for that cloud to embark upon the producer
and me, but it did, and your dad just kept
(01:17):
talking like nothing happened. So that was a good story.
And then you know, wh' when we go with the
one with NOx during COVID when Knox was born, Trent
did the show from the hospital, H and not. You
let out a giant cry, like a rah cry, still
cry and H we set. Look he's got Trent's pipes. Well, uh, my.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Daughter, my set third daughter, Piper. We call her loud pipes,
big rims if that means anything, but uh, she's got them.
But yeah, we were at home and I was working,
and then I was like, man, they've never seen the
new studio, the iHeart Studio.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
That was pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And we got to go eat at G's over by
the airport. I think it's Circle G's or just Geez.
I don't know exactly, it's just Geez. Okay, when the
ate a little bit, you know, some of my favorite
memories of my dad are him taking me to restaurant,
us cutting up, hanging out, so to try to do
that when I can and they're here, but we're recording
(02:17):
two shows today. So once I bit it off, I
told my wife, I was like, well, let me see.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
So Knox has the iPad playing some basketball.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I think I feel like this will probably keep us
out of trouble post show too, which is to get him,
keep him entertained.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And then I'm gonna go by the office when we
leave here for a little while, just really upset them.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
No, there's some trouble they get into. I'm sure they
can find a bull candy or two around that place. Well,
you know, under my credenza in my office, I have
all those toys because when we moved in, our office
was twenty thirteen, so Tatum would have been six, Rolling
would have been five, and Piper would have been three.
So I got the wooden trains and stuff. Ford likes
(03:00):
to play with that stuff. You weren't even a thought them. Boy,
remember you born twenty and fifteen. I guess okay, because
you'll be eleven in January. Holy smoke, Ford, get the
swing that microphone over there and give everybody a what's up?
What's up there?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
He had on his uh.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
He's looking tag in that flight real hats.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well, he's got his rugby reality hat on, He's got
his cornhole pitching for Wish, his ruby shirt on, got
his blue jeans, got his Ford belt, custom leather, and
his cowboy boots. But he had on a real cowboy
get up a tire and he went out. He was like,
I didn't realize this. He come down and said, hey,
when are we leaving? I said about eleven forty, said
(03:50):
then that I wanted to leave a little earlier. I
couldn't find him. He was up up the road chopping firewood.
Come down, Come down with my neighbor, Mike, the maleman.
Mike come down and uh, I said, what are you doing?
He said, I had a change. Man, it's hot, had
all the sleeve shirt.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
You were what do you swinging a sledgehammer? Sledge hammer?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
What kind of did we obviously know who doesn't chop?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well? Yeah, need you get the little the wedge piece
hit with the sledgehammer? Does this come on? Now? Well?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I split wood with a mall. Uh, but my mall's
a little heavy for forward. So uh he started using
our acts a little lighter, and uh, he's been begging
if the handle had a fiberglass handle. The handle broke
about six months ago, and he's been begging me for
a new one.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
So we went to load loads and got him a
got him a new a. Ford, you cut yourself over there, buddy,
he's ready. Oh he's bleeding. Oh we got our first
blood of the day show. I like it. Well, I
like it. Yes, he's gonna get mad at you. You better
be careful.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
He needs some loation. He's got dry elbows.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Can be bleeding, can be leading. Yeah, I gotta say something.
I mean, I don't think you should talk about cutting, uh,
you know, splitting wood and trial elbows and loosh. I
just kind of contraduce itself, doesn't it. Well, I don't
know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
This is the man that uh we got the knife
story from Charles Blevins.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Uh has a little knife collection.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
He showed me his uh. He I'm gonna give Ford
some props. He Uh, he's cleaned his room last night,
organized all his hats. My man has two full hat drawers.
Where we go from, Hey, buddy, it's not that big
a deal. It's Okay, you're good. Yeah, well it's had
(05:42):
everything organized. Had the little money money box, he said,
I mean much. He has his wallet in there, so
how much he had one dollar billies that I got
a lot of gift cards though.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Those are as good as cash. All I see the
bell buckle, that is sweet. Yeah, forget your name, just
looking in the mire that at the.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Southern Christmas Show last year, right and this year, I'm
gonna give you some process. We went back as kind
of a family tradition for us. He used his twenty
dollars that he was allotted and bought uh a gift.
I think gg is our grandmother. His grandmother will go,
(06:21):
we'll already have the gift by the time she listens
to the show. But he used his money to buy her,
buy her a gift.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
That's cool of you, man, Good job. Big ups on
you to do something for somebody else, not what you buy.
I bet you bought a bunch of candy, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
He bought a gun, a wooden gun that has as
like a rotation bands shooter, so you can put six rubber.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Band semi automatic. Say, really, they've been shoot the dogs.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
The best used toy we've had in a while, as
has gotten maximum use in the last three days.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You should hold on, hold on, hold on, you said,
Ford shoots. Really, what what does Wiley do when he
gets hit with the rubber band? He takes it.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
He's a he's in a beatdown dog.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
It's sad.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
While he's while he's beat down, unless he sees a
delivery man, then he's then he's hungry or an electrician.
Ford was watching Sandlot Sandlot this morning. If you've ever
seen that movie, but uh, that has a big dog.
While he gets all excited when he sees that dog,
he tries to jump up and bite.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
It's like the bab what's the dog's name? The beast,
the beast Hercules. That's a good movie. That's a great
Ford said, this.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Is an awesome movie. You ever watched this movie? I
was fifteen. I looked it up nineteen eighty three. I
think that movie was a little I was a little
old older for that movie.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
I watched it.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
We probably watched that a thousand times. And you're four
years older than me. He said, like, yeah, if I
had been said that was about three years past. If
you were three years younger, it had been it had
been hot was funny. I was impressed with your movie
ACU when they're young Man. Baby, Hi Baby Ruthie signed it,
(08:15):
Baby Baby, ruth Baby, Ruthie, Baby Ruthie. And don't forget
Roeby Services is your one stop source for all your
electrical heating, cooling, plumbing and handyman needs. Keep it easy
and get it all done by one. Roby servicesnow dot com.
That's Roby Services now dot com. All right, Patrick, why
don't you tee up our guests today? Yeah, Trent, I
think you're gonna you're gonna like this one. We've got
(08:36):
Will Jones from Thompson. Uh. They do a much a
bunch of bunch of things that are positive for the community.
Actually more than just this community, across several states. I
met Will really had a chance to get to know
him and talk to him a little bit more and
understand Thompson at a Panther game with iHeart of course,
and I just thought his story and what they're doing
is so fascinating and touching that it'd be really great
(08:58):
that we could maybe help get the message out on
what it is all are looking for and be just
to hear your story.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, thanks for having me, guys, are much appreciated. Yeah, Thompson. Actually,
we're going to celebrate one hundred and forty years to
Charlotte Market in twenty twenty six, so we're coming up
to one forty. It's a big celebration for us. But
what what was and what is is two different things.
So you know, it's interesting about Thompson. Thompson actually is
on the trail of history on the two seventy seven Beltway.
(09:26):
If you remember the where the Trader Joe's is and
the Big Best Buy and the all around two seventy
Politan that actually was the orphanage at Thompson one hundred
and thirty some odd years ago. And it's interesting to
run an organization that's part of the inner fabric of Charlotte.
But as you can imagine, the needs of the community
(09:47):
that we live in and other communities have changed drastically
over one hundred and forty years, and even more so
probably since the pandemic. High level, what Thompson does is
we do three primary things. We do services in and
around foster care. So we recruit, license and support foster
homes and children that are placed in those homes that
(10:08):
are removed from their family and loved ones. We provided
behavioral health or mental health services to children families in
multiple communities. And then we try to do our best
to work with schools, early childhood education centers, community organizations
to prevent children from going deeper into systems like behavioral
health systems, juvenile justice systems, and child welfare systems. And
(10:30):
we've been blessed. Looking over at the show name the
Entrepreneur's Blueprint, We've taken an entrepreneurial approach to growing out
the business. We've run twenty percent year over a year
for the last six years.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
We're now in five states, have almost a six hundred
employees impacting about four thousand youth a year.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Now, that's wonderful. Two things, you know, when you just
mentioned the location of the original orphanage on the Greenway,
there there is I think there's a couple of statues
if I'm not correct, mistaken to pay homage to that. One.
And two, my wife is an LCSW in Mecklenburg County Schools.
I think I might have mentioned that too. You so
very familiar with your work and the office that you
(11:10):
guys have on Windover. Is that the corporate tell us
what that is?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yeah? It's interesting because a lot of people in the
Charlotte market actually see that office more than they do
actually corporate, so if you will, But that is a
family services center, you know, off of Windover Road between
Randolph and Monroe, and there we provide a lot of
our community mental health services, outpatient treatment, We do parent
education classes for the community. We support grandparents that are
(11:39):
supporting their grandkids that are raising their grandkids in that community.
Our foster care staff work out of that office. But
that's really kind of a family services center where we
try to do our best to provide services that strengthen
the families. Whatever that looks like for an individual. And
actually our corporate office is sitting on sixty five acres
in Matthew's.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Okay, oh Man, sixty five acres, sixty five acres and
about fifteen fifteen different buildings.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Goodness gracious.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
So what'd you say, one hundred and forty years old
this year coming up coming up to it don't look
like old. And it was an orphanage originally, yeah, okay,
And how was it founded one hundred and forty year
It was.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Actually founded by the Episcopal Church really in Charlotte. You know,
there's a lot about the history that we know and
a lot that we don't know. But it was founded
by the church, and the Orphanage is one hundred and
thirty nine years ago. There was a there were there
were a lot of different organizations in Charlotte and beyond
they had orphanages. We had a very similar that we
have today. We have a lot of we had a
lot of children not not having family members to raise them.
(12:47):
So that's how it started. You know, the Orphanage as
it stands is really the need for something like that
has changed drastically over that time period, which I think
is a blessing, But unfortunately there's a need for other
other places for children to go.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
So now it's more foster I mean, you try to
place them with families. I know at our church I
go to Still Creek Presbyterian and at Pleasant Hills we
have a couple families that really do a lot with
fostering children and they bring them around and integrate them
with the church. Is wonderful.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah, we believe, you know, and I think data shows
us to be true. A child is going to thrive
in a family like setting, not a group home setting,
an orphanage setting. We do group home services on the
kind of traumatized behavioral health side, short term stays for children,
but not like the old orphanage where a child could
actually live in an orphanage for a long period of time,
up seventeen years possibly.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
But you know, the needs in our community have changed
and we now know that that's not in the best
interest of children.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Wow. Tell us a little bit about I mean, how
did you get into this field of work and kind
of walk us through the history of will.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, you know, I would say I kind of stumbled
into the work, to be honest with you, and only
I went to college in Orlando, Florida, the University of
Central Florida, and I was engaged, me married, I was
applying to be a federal law enforcement officer into one
of the federal academies, and I also applied for a
(14:15):
master's program, all at the same time. So I figured
out one of those three things would work, you know.
So at the same time I needed to work, and
just applied for a job working with runaway and homeless
youth for the county there, Orange County in Orlando, making
seven dollars and seven cents an hour. I know it
was a lot of money. It's odd that I've never
(14:37):
forgotten that hourly wage. I've only been on the workforce
for thirty three years, and I've never forgotten that seven
oh seven an hour, So I know, and I was,
I was a heavy hitter back then.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
That seven made the difference, right, I mean that was
funny how those those wages were back then. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
The cool thing about it, the benefits were free, you know,
the employee at that point time, we didn't have to contribute,
so I had good benefits also. But what was really
cool is actually paid me money to hang out and
play basketball and interact with young people. And I was
still a young person at the time, twenty one. And
while all there's other three goals I had, you know,
(15:12):
I got accepted to a federal law enforcement academy. I
got married, and I got accepted into my master's program.
So I had a choice to make. Do I do
I work on that marriage and do what my wife
at the time wanted me to do, which was not
go off and be a federal law enforcement officer, or
do I go back and go back and get my
master's degree. And I decided to get my master's degree
(15:33):
in criminal justice while I work with that risk youth
and and just never turned back. So had some really
early interactions with youth that they share their story about.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You know.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I talk a lot about a young man named Darnell
and he just said, mister, will you know I didn't
get to pick where I was born, you know, And
I didn't think about it at the time, Like, we
don't get to pick what family were born into. We
don't get to pick what community we're born into. We
don't get to pick what zip code were born into.
And that's stuff called me in a lot of ways.
So really work with that young man to really demonstrate
that somebody cared about him, and it was very intentional.
(16:07):
He's now he's now a social worker. Actually cool as
an adult. So it's a pretty cool story. We stay
in contact.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Wow, that is awesome. So are you from? Where are you?
Are you from Florida?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I raised in Florida. My dad was in the military.
Raised on the East Coast if you're familiar with Florida,
a little town called Satellite Beach, just south of Cocoa Beach, Florida.
Went to college and the University Center Florida in Orlando,
and then I worked there as an adult for eighteen
years before I moved to North Carolina thirteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Did you move here to work for Thompson?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I did not move a talk from Thompson. We really
wanted to be in the in the Carolinas. We had
family here, we had visited here, We had already identified
a potential church here. The only thing I needed to
identify as a living of how am I going to
work here? And a short story is that I ended
up working for a Florida based company got me able
(16:57):
to actually live here to work in North Carolina. If
you're familiar with Ecker Drugs big footprint in North Carolina, well,
Jack and Ruth Eckert also had a big passion for
at risk youth and they decided to start a foundation
at the time to work with that rith use called
eckerd Youth Alternatives. They did a lot of wilderness camps
here in Carolina's so when I got the job to
(17:20):
be the eventual chief operating officer of that company, they said,
you can live anywhere that we do work in North
Carolina at that point in time was the second biggest
footprint Charlotte. Here we come, Yep, yep, waxaw but you know,
nobody knew Waxa on Florida. So I said, Charlotte. Some
people still in wax saw Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
We got the furniture commercials man for back in those days.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
That was all.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
That's right, that's great. Well that's cool. So you uh,
Eckerd was acquired. Is that right that they were? I
think it was. I grew up. Was our neighborhood drugs
we had maybe we had rev Code. Do you remember
rev Code?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
You say it, I don't think I would have ever
named that with them. Well, that was our little pharmacy.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
And I as a kid, I grew up outside Atlanta,
Marriat of Georgia. It was rev Co, which I think
was purchased by Eckerd and then right Aid got them.
So okang, big roll up there.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
So thirteen years ago you moved to Waxhall, yep, and
you've worked for the charitable arm of the Eckerd.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Family, ECRED Youth Alternatives. We were I would say we
were probably a one point five per center and as
it pertains a non for profit healthing human services work.
We were about three hundred million in revenue, that's wild,
and we were working in about ten to eleven different states,
and then by the time I left there, we had
grown into fifteen to sixteen different states and about three
hundred and fifty million in annual revenue. Pretty big operation.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
That's why you have this entrepreneurial but growth. I was
getting ready to go with the entrepreneur question too. I mean,
so when do you talk about this growth? Is this
through Merger's acquisitions, organic, A little bit of both.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah, it's a little bit of both, but primarily organic,
you know. And the not for profit. We're we're tax
status not for profit, so you know that's you know,
we're very clear on what that means. That's a tax status,
not not a goal. You know, not for profit doesn't
make any organization move well. But we also knew we
needed to scale. You know, it's through scale you can
(19:17):
do more for your people, more for your customers, sure,
more for your mission, anything and everything on the business.
And you guys understand this clearly. So that was super
important for us to do that. So we've taken a
real business model approach to growing the mission and the
impact of the organization.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Man that.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, we we're a family business, third generation, seventy fifth
year this year twenty five, nineteen fifty.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
It's not when I was born, little baby, see y'all.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
But but at our town halls, we do a quarterly
town hall and we get questions from some of our
our staff out in the field and stuff like why
do you want to grow, and we try to explain
to them we can add more value.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
To you if we grow correctly. And that's to your
point on scaling.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I think it is, uh, you want to give better
customer service. And in y'all's world is to is to
youth and their families and kids, and and would you
say grandparents that are raising them.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I think that is so cool.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, man, So you're in six states now.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
We're in five states now. When I got to Thompson
a little over eight and a half years ago, we
were primarily in the Charlotte area, and now we're probably
we're probably coast of mountains and both Carolinas. We do
work in the entire state of Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky, I.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Said, righty, from Louisville.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
You know, Bowling Green, Kentucky. And then we're in my
home state of Florida and have been for four years
in the Tampa Bay area and We just moved into
the Orlando area, a little little county called Seminole County,
which is just on the right next to Orange County,
which is Orlando.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Wow. So when you say you go into a new county, like,
tell us about that is? How like? Well, for example, Seminole,
did did you just go and open a brick and mortar?
Did you hire some talent? Well? And how does that work?
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Yeah? And you could do all those different things. We are.
We're a little different instnrat. A lot of people kind
to hear the word non for profit and it was
funny out A neighbor asked me the other day, are
you a nonprofit or a non for profit? And I
was scratching my head. I was like, yes, it really
is the same thing. But that's really that's again that's
the tax status, but not the goal. But we're basically
at Thompson we're a healthing human services organization. Yeah. And
(21:31):
in healthing human services, there's generally three types of business
that do work in that space. One is a non
for profit, which we are one. Two is a for profit.
There's there's organizations, there's there's pe VC. Everything that's going
on in your world is going on in my world
on the for profit and then government also does a
lot of services directly, but we do a lot of
(21:53):
RFP work. You know, we respond to requests for proposals. Yeah, okay,
that's not the best way and easiest way to grow
our footprint, but we do some RFP works. In Orlando,
we went in on the back of an RFP.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Like to the public schools or something like those lines.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
With the well with the there they have a privatized
child Well it's almost like the Department of Social Service
especially private entity that kind of runs the systems there.
And it was a competitive procurement, but it really goes
back to our approach. I'm assuming very actually, I don't
even assume.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I know.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
It's your philosophy. It's quality begets quantity. Yeah, you do
quality work and people want you to do more of
it in other places and also where you're at, so
we really focus on quality care.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah, man, quality begets quantity. That's the flywheel we like
to talk about.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Once.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Once you're doing good and you're providing priceless service.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Uh in whatever world you're in.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Uh you guys health in human services, helping families and kids.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Man, Yeah, it's it's it's a double bottom line, right,
So we want to make enough money we can reinvest
back into the mission, into the communities and in two children,
especially this time of year. And I'll talk about that
in a second, but it's we want to grow our impact.
Where there's a lot of non for profits, they're either
they're either running in place other walking backwards. We have
(23:15):
this philosophy we want to be a mission that's on mission.
That means we're moving into unmet need and so that
means growth. So we want to grow our impact and
grow into communities that need us.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
So how how prevalent, how many homeless kids that need
foster care are there? I mean, I'm it's kind of
out of sight, out of mind. I hate to say
it that way. I mean, hopefully I'm teeing you up
for a learning uh. But now that folks at our
(23:46):
church are doing it is at the forefront of what
I'm seeing.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
And you know, Biblically we're called we're called to care
for widows and orphans. Right, So I'm a believer, I
go to church, so biblically we're called to do that.
So we we find a lot of families in the
faith orientation and people that are believers in Jesus Christ
in particular, but other faiths as well. But here's the
dynamic in North Carolina. I'm glad you're saying about we
(24:12):
just got to open our eyes. Yeah, I mean, you know,
look at where we're standing now. We go down a
half mile to the left. There's all sorts of problem.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
It's crazy.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
I mean, we own and operate a early childhood development
center on West Wolvard and Clanton, less than five minutes
from here, and you go down there, there's no there's
no teeter, there's no publics, there's no drug store, so
there's a food desert going on there, there's a service desert.
You can imagine. There's problems everywhere in Charlotte. But in
reference to foster care, it's interesting there's actually give or
(24:41):
take on any given day. There's over ten thousand children
in the foster care system in North Carolina alone. Wow,
ten thousand. And here's the sad thing about it, there's
only over five thousand foster homes in North Carolina. And
in order for the system to work well, you actually
don't need to have a foster home for every child,
need to have multiple foster homes for every child, because
(25:02):
not every child is right for every home, and not
every home it's right for every child. So we're probably
about fifteen thousand foster homes away from being able to
completely meet the need of those ten thousand children on
any given day.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
And this is a big part of the message you're
trying to personally get out to the community through levels
of mediums like my heart. I mean, that's that's one
of the reasons you're you guys are so prevalent here,
which I mean, think about that trend that's fifteen thousand.
I mean, just five kids is too many. We just
came off of our annual corn hole tournament for the
Make a Wish Foundation and it's you know, it's it's
(25:38):
serving a similar dynamic of people, but in a totally
different way. And say that, I mean, the whole goal
of Make a Wish trends kind of like to get
themselves out of business.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, to provide a wish for every child with life
threatening and illness. Hopefully no child has life threaten and
illness one day. Hopefully that's the world we can we
can and see in our lifetime.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Man.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
So we're four x or three x short of the
number of foster homes needed in North Carolina to adequately
provide for the What did you say, twenty.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Thousand over ten thousand, over ten thousand.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And I get it. What I mean, that's scary. I
mean it would be if you've never done been a
foster parent before I had a foster home. I mean,
there's probably a lot of misconceptions on what that really means.
And I mean that's it's a huge commitment. And maybe
if you were someone that was considering doing that and
they're listening to this podcast, how would you kind of
help them to sort of get over that hurdle of
(26:37):
really because I can't imagine it can't be probably one
of the most rewarding things you could do, But it's
the same part, it's it's scary. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
The first and foremost shameless plug, right, I'm gonna take
the opportunity at leave got a Thompson CFF dot org.
When you go to our website, there's basically three calls
to action. One of those is to learn more about
becoming a foster parent, and through that we will edge
cage you honestly about the difficulties and the rewards for
(27:04):
you and your family as it retains of fostering, and
there are both depending on your circumstance, depending on your
family makeup. You know, you had mentioned five children that
are in the home, I would probably say probably not
a great time, right, So yeah, I shared it. I
also have five kids, three of them and it's not
a great time, you know, just because we have a
lot of a lot of moving parts. But you know,
(27:28):
if you don't have a great foundation within your within
your marital relationship, not a good time. Amen, Like you
have to get that right first before you foster. So
we're really honest with people. Yes, we want to grow
foster homes. We want to grow foster homes that stay
with us. So the interesting thing about our data says
is if you become a foster parent at Thompson, you
stay a foster parent at Thompson actually serve kids for
(27:49):
an average of three years. So interestingly, enough people that
fund our work to the following HALTHROPICSID they say, you
seem to seem spending a lot of money on marketing,
and my responses, yes, but not enough. So in our space,
marketing is almost an unheard of thing. But yet we
keep on saying we're trying to recruit, Well, why do
you recruit somebody if they don't know who you are,
(28:11):
what you do, and how well you do it. So
that's why marketing is such a big part of our
kind of business model when it pertains to foster parents,
and it's so critical that you get out of the
box and think about business business like systems to in
order to grow your business. So that becomes big for us.
But what we try to do ground ourselves as honesty, transparency,
(28:32):
be genuine with people. We don't just want to foster
home to say we have a foster home that's no
use to children. We want to have that foster home
that understands what they're getting into, goes through, that is
completely aware of the good, the bad, and the potential
ugly of that situation.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Wow, very cool, that is awesome. What I mean, what
is your industry? Our industries is you know, we have
a difficult time finding folks that want to do the
work that trades people in our world is very difficult.
Do you find the same thing? I mean, because this
is the type of work that you're doing, it's tough.
I mean, it's a lot dealing with a lot of emotions,
(29:10):
a lot of really hard topics. Is it difficult finding
qualified people in your industry? You know?
Speaker 3 (29:17):
I think since twenty twenty it's difficult for us. All yeah,
you know, I think that's but that's just in every industry,
you know, and I think the data prove that out.
It's all birth rate data, right. So you have this
many jobs in the world and this many people between
the ages of eighteen to sixty four, and in specific
industries like ours, where you have to be maybe be
a licensed social worker, maybe we need a nurse, maybe
we need somebody that's a psychiatrist. While all of a sudden,
(29:40):
instead of a one out of ten, it goes down
to point ten out of ten in that pool. So yes,
it's been an ongoing challenge for sure. And what we
try to do is very similar to other organizations. How
do we make ourselves more attractive than other people in
our space, whether it be again, this is where scale
comes important. People want to grow in their career. Well,
you can't skate, you can't row, you can't have opportunities
(30:01):
for upper mobility. If you don't grow, you've got to
scale learning and development. We're a big you mentioned your
fly will our fly will starts with good leadership. So
with good leadership, everything else gets better. It's kind of
that old Maxwell, I'm common about that. But we invest
heavily in a leadership development, those type of things. So
how do we grow people becomes a big part of
(30:21):
that attraction to people out there. But it's a challenge,
I mean, and I think it will be a challenge
for all of us in every industry, probably another five
or six years. Again, it's all based on birth rate data.
Now maybe AI helps in some ways, but I don't
think it's will replace the complete need.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Agreed, mam. When do you think about that?
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I'm so impressed. I agree it's such a need. I mean,
tall about my five children, your five children. I mean,
we have our faults in our house, but they're so
blessed to be where they're at. And ten thousand in
North Carolina alone that weren't born into a home with
(30:59):
a family, Yeah, had a family.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Well, think about it this time of year. This is
where the holiday season is so important to me as
a leader of an organization like Thompson because I've also
had an opportunity to travel a lot in different work.
So I traveled one hundred and eighty five nights a year.
As an example, if you guys have traveled away from
home without your spouse, without your kids, even sleeping in
an a bougie hotel, it's not comfortable. I don't get
my best night to sleep away from your home. So
(31:22):
you're in this kind of setting that's not your home,
it's uncomfortable. You're just not going to get your best
line to sleep. Just now, imagine you're a nine year
old kid that's been pulled away from your parents, their parents,
their loved ones, and they're staying in a stranger's home.
How does that feel to them?
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Right?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
So, this is what's happening in the holidays for us,
and this is why the holiday season is so important
for us, where if we're not careful, it could become
very very depressing, sad, and almost a retraumatization for children here.
So right now we're really working hard to make sure
we're providing a good holiday season for fifteen hundred kids.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, in December, it's amazing that you're right what we
take for granted. You know, just through my wife and
through your church, we we've had some exposure, but not
nothing compared to what what you're what you're seeing on
a daily basis. But I mean, it's right, it's just
right around the corner from here.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
You got to keep beating a drum, I mean, and
to your point on advertising and getting the word out
there and making people aware. That's why you're on here,
that's why you're doing the CEO podcast. Well, I'm gonna
put you on the spot. Wheel is such a great
story and you're so cool and thanks for being here.
What is one thing you've You've told told a lot
of a lot of good business h things, but what's
(32:39):
one thing that you live by in your life that
you carry with you in both in both business and life.
And then follow up give Thompson's a plug again for
our guests.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
You know, I think one thing I live by in
life is I'm blessed to get paid to actually impact lives.
But my life mission is just to be helpful, you know.
And that's our approach to our work. That's how approach
to our partnerships. Like you know, yes, we will work
with corporate partners to volunteer given those type of things.
But you'll never have me come and ask you for that.
(33:11):
What I'll do is ask you, Hey, what can I
do to help you? You know? So that's really important
to me as an individual, and that's super important. So
how can I be helpful to others is kind of
a big part of how I live my life outside
of work and within work and even within my family.
And that's that's a big life lesson. And do it
because you really want to be helpful, not and don't
(33:32):
do it because you want something in return, because that's
really sad. That's not what good human nature really is.
I think that's important. So that's one thing that kind
of sticks with me, and I will just an add
on there is kind of I always say this, most
of what I learned about leadership is wrong, you know
where I think a lot of times people think that
leading is doing the job of those that you're leading,
(33:53):
and that's really not leading. That's doing the job of
those that you're leading. So I learned that probably my
first twenty five years in leadership, and I realize I'm
going to get better from them if I lead them,
coach them, develop them, give them opportunities to do things. Fail,
learn from the failing. You know, the lady that started
the Monassory School program. If you're familiar with that. She said,
whatever I do for you, I take away from you.
(34:15):
So that's good leadership doing jobs. So that's another thing
I kind of carry on. And I do that with
my kids too, So it's not just again in the workplace,
it's it's how do I help my kids learn to
feed themselves? Not just give them fish every Friday. I
want them to learn how to fish on their behalf.
So that's big life lesson from me. And I just
(34:35):
think the other thing about Thompson is I think there's
a lot of organizations in the Charlotte market and then
the other force in North Carolina and the other four states.
We provide services too, and they all do a great job.
But we're playing golf here at Thompson. We're just trying
to get better and what we do, how we do
it with the people that we work with, and I
(34:56):
think that we take a little bit of a different
approach to it. We're not everybody's cup of tea. But
if you're interested in outcomes for children, outcomes for families,
if you're interested in volunteering, fostering giving, our model is different.
You don't give to keep the lights on, you give
to move the mission forward, and that's what makes Thompson
really special.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
I hear you, man, that's awesome. Give to keep moving forward.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
I hear you.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
And be helpful to others. What a great lesson. Well
go check it out. What's the website Thompson CFF dot org.
Thompson CFF dot org. Will thanks for being here.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I'm gonna give you my pointer. Go do the Golden
rule today. Treat others the way you want to be treated,
even when it's tough, even when they're not doing the
right thing. Treat them the way you want somebody treat
you when you're not doing the right thing, carry a
smile around on your face. Thanks for listening to At
Home with Ruby.
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