June 3, 2024 • 55 mins
Derek Miner and his business partner, Greg Trimble, take us behind the scenes of their company, Lemonade Stand, and their uplifting new initiative, Build Then Bless.
The importance of family and making the most of every moment is a recurring theme in our conversation. From building treehouses to balancing real-life connections with the digital world, Derek and Greg share personal anecdotes that illustrate the joys and challenges of parenting. Their "Build then Bless" initiative is a testament to how family values can seamlessly integrate into business practices, creating a culture where both employees and clients feel valued and supported.
Greg's leadership helped foster a philanthropic company culture that encouraged small acts of kindness, even in the face of adversity. Stories of generosity, like covering repair costs for strangers or providing meals to those in need, highlight the ripple effect of collective goodwill. Finally, we discuss how the Build then Bless platform transforms workplace culture by recognizing and celebrating individual contributions, showing that true happiness begins when selfishness ends.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Welcome to the Gentleman Project Podcast.
I'm Corey Moore and I'm KirkChug.
We've got a repeat offender inthe house today, derek Miner.
He's one of our best GentlemanProject advocates.
He was on the original board ofthe Gentleman Project and he's
just always been an advocate forwhat we're doing.
So grateful to have him back inthe podcast studio.
He brought someone with himtoday that I've always respected
(00:22):
as well.
He's also been an advocate forthe Gentleman Project, greg
Trimble.
They're partners in business,great friends, and they're
working on something really,really cool.
About a month and a half, twomonths ago, we were all at the
Kindness Summit.
All four of us were invited byour good friend, curtis Bennett,
(00:42):
and as we were listening tothese messages, I got to sit by
Derek, talk to Derek, and hesaid we're doing this, we have
codified this, we've gamifiedthis.
This is culture that we've beenworking on for our biggest
project right now, and I saidwhy don't you come on the
podcast and talk about it?
(01:03):
And the next time I saw Derek,he sent me home with t-shirts
and my wife's been wearing thet-shirts they're a great workout
shirts, derek, by the way, andwe're just excited to hear what
you guys have been working on.
So first, for people thathaven't listened to your first
podcast, derek, introduceyourself, and then let Greg
(01:23):
introduce himself and kind ofget a feeling for who you guys
are.
Family makeup real quick, andthen we want to talk about build
them Bless.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Awesome, wow, thanks so much for having me back.
You say you guys came.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
It wasn't hard, no, it was easy, it must've been
really good.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Oh, this is.
This is awesome.
So inspired by the work thatyou're doing right around things
that matter the very most.
I think now, when we're soconnected with our devices and
with technology, the opportunityto be truly connected not only
with amazing people but alsowith our kids, with things and
moments that matter the most.
That's really as we've kind ofzoomed out to saying what
(02:03):
matters, what really matters.
It was so fun I was having aconversation with he was six at
the time my son and I said, bud,tell me, what are you thinking
about right now?
You know, and he said mattering.
I'm like whoa, that literallyjust for me.
I'm like what matters to him,it's just mattering, and I
(02:25):
thought that's just sointeresting.
All of us want to matter insome way, doing something, doing
important work, but so thrilledto be here again with you guys
and just again inspired by whatyou do.
By way of background, I loveUtah and Utah can't get rid of
me either.
I grew up on a ranch andlearned the value of what it's
(02:46):
like to care for things, notonly caring for animals, but
caring for other people,learning the value of hard work,
and one of the greatestblessings was learning how to
work and learning how to buildmeaningful relationships, and
I've tried to do that with mywonderful family.
I've got an incredible familymy son's in Argentina on a
mission and my youngest littleprincess is five years old and
(03:11):
she has this all wrapped aroundher finger.
But love doing work that mattersas well, and with incredible
people so thrilled to have theopportunity to work with Greg
and so many incredible people atLemonade Stand and what we've
been building and trying to makea difference in the lives of
our not only our team membersbut also our clients, and that's
(03:34):
kind of where Build.
Then Bless came as a result ofthat.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So give us a little background on Lemonade Stand so
that people know what that is.
Go ahead, Derek.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Oh, okay.
Yeah, it's kind of funnybecause when we tell people we
work at Lemonade Stand, they'relike what.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
You work at a lemonade stand.
You're the kids at the end ofthe block.
No, it's not in the street.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
It's my favorite because my kids are like what
does your dad do for work?
He works at a lemonade standand everyone's like, wait, what
yeah, I do for work?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
He works at a lemonade stand and everyone's
like wait what?
Yeah, yeah, Does he have abusiness permit?
Though?
Yes, we do.
It's so interesting, right.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
All the, all the dynamics that go into running a
business and the complicationsthat go into that.
But just quick littlebackground on myself.
I I started a tech company incollege it's called simple tech.
Um sold it, uh, in about threeyears.
It grew pretty quickly, but itit just wasn't the style of
business that I enjoyed the most.
(04:29):
So I took a portion of that andthen started lemonade stand and
the.
The foundation of that is thatevery single business
essentially starts as a lemonadestand in some way, shape or
form, right when you're.
You have this great idea.
You've you've dreamed a bigdream.
(04:51):
You need to execute on thatdream.
You've essentially made yourlemonade and you need to sell it
.
You need people to find it.
But what happens with alemonade stand?
You often have people on theside of the road sitting there
with a sign.
They have a full picture oflemonade and they often go back
into the house with a fullpitcher of lemonade, right.
And so that's one of thebiggest, most important pieces
(05:13):
of building a business isbuilding a brand that people can
trust, that they can trust thatthat lemonade is good and it's
clean and it's it tastes rightand it's not going to make you
sick and you know that's, that'sthe brand.
And then how do you get theword out that what you've built
and what you've created issomething that is worth buying
and worth people wanting to dobusiness?
I have this strong belief,especially nowadays with
(05:37):
marketing advertising, thatpeople want to do business with
those that they know, like andtrust and, at the end of the day
, that's what it all boils downto, and I know that you guys
know that as well.
Your reputation is everythingand that's what we've tried to
do with digital marketing agency.
We have most of our team inUtah, but we have team scattered
(05:59):
out throughout the country.
We do process payroll in about15 or 16 states and, uh, hybrid
and remote team.
But it's awesome.
I have an amazing family.
Um, we're kind of freaking outas of today, today, right now,
both of our kids we have twokids and they are on their way
to bear lake their first time usbeing without them on their own
(06:24):
, driving you know, know away,and so we're.
We're just freaking out becausewe're going to be empty nesters
here in about a year and, um,but we, we really have tried to
be intentional with raising them.
And for myself I can speak formyself being a good man and a
good husband and a good father.
That's what's most important tome above all.
(06:46):
Um, that's my business.
You know that's, that's thething that I care most about,
and you know that I if any ofyour listeners are over here
four or five years ago um, thatwas the first book that I wrote
was about dads.
Dads who stay and fight, dadswho stay and fight.
And how important it is that, asmen, we step up and do what
(07:10):
we're supposed to do while wehave the time to do it.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Those moments are fleeting.
They go by so fast.
Yeah, they do.
I had one of those similarmoments, like this weekend we
drove up to the ranch and weneeded some extra seats and I'm
following my boys that were likeI remember these little boys
like just sitting up on theirown and I'm like someday they're
(07:36):
going to be men and they're inthe truck in front of me, you
know, driving on their ownthrough the canyon over dirt
roads, and I'm not worried aboutthem.
But I kind of had one of thosemoments like wow, they have
grown up like just right beforemy eyes.
So that's super cool.
Thank you, and a shout out toyou too, greg.
(07:57):
Like when we were working onone of our projects, you said
you know anybody who's involvedwith the gentleman project.
Send me a spreadsheet of theiraddresses.
I'm sending them a book.
And he sent a free book toeverybody who supported us.
Well, that's killer.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
And I'll never forget that.
I've grown up kind of as a dadreading the words of Greg,
because you were like anoriginal blogger too.
You know he almost everythingyou ever wrote on Facebook back
then went viral and he's justgot away with words.
And so I kind of grew up as ayoung dad reading your words and
(08:40):
I and I respected you for, forthe things that you talked about
and and the things that you youpreached about family and faith
, and so that means a ton.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
It helped me as a young dad, not knowing what I
was doing.
I would, I would read what youwrote and I'm like this guy's.
This guy's a strength to me.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Oh, thank you.
You think about the name ofyour podcast?
It's that's.
My wife says that all the time.
Teach our son to become agentleman.
You know to do the things thatvery few men are doing across
the world nowadays, which is tostep up and to, to shape up and
(09:22):
to be what has become a relic inour society to be a gentleman.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
So thank you for your work, do you guys?
Do you guys look back now,where I know you still have a
young one at home, but do youlook back?
But you also have older onesany young ones empty, empty.
You know I'm looking at theempty nester thing and I'm
probably, you know, six, sevenyears away, but I have my first
one leaving for college in likethree weeks.
(09:48):
Do you look back on what you'vedone so far and you say, oh man
, I'm glad I did these one ortwo things.
Does anything stand out in yourmind now that you've had some
time under your belt where yougo?
Man, I'm so glad I did thesefew, one or two things.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Wow.
Well, I think in life there'stwo things we always say right,
I'm glad I did, or I wish Iwould have.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
And I was talking with Kirk just last month and
talking about something that heactually introduced to me
because of the gentleman project, which was taking time
intentionally with each one ofmy kids one-on-one and when you
have six kids that can take alot of time.
But it was something that Iintentionally tried to do and
(10:34):
now, as I think about it, it'salmost become a natural process.
Oh, that's great when I can bewith just one of my kids
one-on-one, which is so much funBecause now I want them.
I think ultimate success isthat our kids want to hang out
with us not only now but later,right.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I think that that's.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
That's a signal that we're we've done something right
, but that's that's somethingthat I learned from from Kirk,
and one of the things that Istarted doing, too, is I start
writing down some of the thingsthat my kids say that are just
so great and, like I shared withmy son, said I'm like this is
so good and there's all theseamazing things that they share
(11:15):
and they talk about, sosometimes so out of context and
so random, but it's just so pure.
Those two things have madeprobably the biggest difference
and impact in my life.
One of the other things andI've gotten well mixed reviews
None of our kids are on socialmedia and they haven't.
In fact, it was so funny whenmy, when my son showed up and
(11:37):
he's like now that you're on amission, you got to.
You know it's.
Here's your Facebook page.
Like all right, can you teachme how to do this?
In fact, he had to create hisfirst LinkedIn profile because
of a business class he took inhigh school, and so we were
walking through that.
He's like how does this evenwork?
And some of his posts are someof my favorite, as I was
thinking about that, um, but Iasked my daughter the other day.
I said hey, do you feel likeyou're missing out?
(11:59):
She says no, she says that Ilike connecting with people in
real life, and I think those arejust a few things that we've
tried to be intentional about.
That, as I look back and wedon't know the ramifications,
what our kids have heard, whatthey haven't heard but it's
these little moments that wehave that I want to always
(12:21):
remember.
But small things, I always saysmall things multiplied by time,
are what equal the greatestresults.
And it's doing these smallthings, repeatedly spending time
one on one right, seeing themin real life.
I love skiing and you can't goanywhere on a chairlift, so it's
like, hey, what's up?
And that was a decision that Imade too but all these, all
(12:41):
these little things that wedon't get these moments back
right, and so are we making themost of them, rather than being
connected on a device, beingconnected in real life?
Speaker 4 (12:50):
That's awesome, I think.
For me it's just beenprioritizing them ahead of
everything.
There's this really quick storythat I loved about Clayton
Christensen, Harvard businessprofessor, innovator's dilemma.
I mean how?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
will you measure your ?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
life.
How will you measure?
Speaker 4 (13:08):
your life.
I mean, some of the greatestlessons.
Um, probably the greatestlesson I think I learned from
studying him was that he he, himand his wife were were buying a
new house.
They bought a new house.
They saw the plot of land, theysaw this corner and they said,
man, that'd be perfect for alittle tree house.
(13:29):
You know a little place, andhis kid and they decided where
they would build it.
They specced it out and theywere going to do all this.
And the kids just loved itEvery single day.
They couldn't wait for dad toget home so that they could
build that thing together.
They waited for dad to get homeso that they could build that
(13:50):
thing together.
They waited for him to get okay, what are we going to do?
And that's all.
It consumed all their time.
That's all they wanted to do.
And so he did that with them,worked along side by side with
them to build this tree house.
And he said, um, after it wasall said and done, he said it
was a highlight of his life, ahighlight of his kid's life.
His kids will always rememberthose times that they spent.
And he said I shudder to thinkthat I almost bought a kit from
(14:11):
which I would have built thatmyself so that I could have got
it done quick, so that they hada treehouse.
They didn't want to hang out inthe treehouse, they wanted to
build and create alongside dad.
And so for me that's been fromday one.
I've tried to prioritize andbuild and shape my lifestyle, my
(14:40):
career, my business, evenchurch callings or whatever it
might be.
Nothing takes precedent overthe time that I need to take to
make sure that they feelimportant and the time is like I
have a year left and thenthey're gone.
They're, they're gone, they'reout and they'll never probably
live with us again.
I know that's sometimes thathappens, but that's it.
(15:04):
And in that book I actuallywrote a chapter on the golden
years.
Everyone talks about the goldenyears.
It's like those are the yearsyou know kids are gone and your
business is good and these arethe years you can retire and
feel, enjoy your life.
I'm like your golden years.
You have about 20 years.
Those are your golden years andit might be hard, it might be
(15:26):
stressful, there might be tonsof anxiety, all these
responsibilities, but those arethe golden years and to not
overlook those and to not takethose for granted and to put
every last ounce of energy intothose golden years and then,
when they're out, okay I'll,I'll work more, I'll, I'll do
(15:47):
what.
You know.
You can do different things, butjust making them keeping the
main thing.
The main thing husband, father,to be a good husband and good
father, that's that's been mygoal.
Is that when I, when I die anddeath is, it feels like it's
always before me.
I always am.
Maybe it's a fatalist.
I think it's more being arealist, because every day you
(16:09):
wake up and there's anotherfriend that's down.
Um, there's a passage that Ilove.
It says our lives passed away,as it were, unto us a dream, and
each of us, I think, if we'rebeing real, we we understand
that concept and to always makesure that you make every single
(16:29):
second, every single day, everysingle year count during those
years, with your kids as afamily, to do those things.
That's what's been mostimportant to me.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
You guys talk a lot about the culture in your family
and the things that youprioritize the most.
You've also been verysuccessful at translating that
into business, and so I want totalk about Build, then Bless.
Tell people what it is, becauseI think it's a revolutionary
(17:01):
idea and everyone's familiarwith the status quo when it
comes to corporate culture andwe talk mostly about taking
corporate ideas and putting theminto the family.
We're kind of going backwardson this one just a little bit,
but I think this is such a coolproject that people should hear
about.
We want to give you guys aplatform to talk about it man
(17:22):
we're yeah, this is where westart.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I just have to say one of the things, too, I get to
learn from Greg every day.
It's an incredible blessingbecause when he talks about
being an incredible, you knowhusband and father and giving
free books.
You know, as you mentioned, Istarted with Greg after we
stayed in touch for severalyears.
We decided to work together andI joined Lemonade Stand on
(17:47):
March 9th 2020, a week after theentire world unraveled and here
Greg's just brought me on.
Our clients were all panicking.
No one knew really what wasgoing to happen and people were
pausing their budgets.
And Greg looked at me and I'mlike I remember this from 08, 09
being in this, but Greg'sperspective always was this hey,
(18:12):
for the clients who can't pay,we're going to continue to do
work for them without thempaying, and those are still
clients of ours today.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
All right Pat.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
But it's not just, it's not how he shows up.
How he shows up at work isexactly how he shows up at home,
which is so inspiring to me.
And when we joined, when Istarted, you know, when we were
having conversations, I saidtell me one of the things that
you're doing outside of justmaking money to make a
difference and to make an impactin the world.
And he had an amazing answeryou and to make an impact in the
(18:44):
world.
And he had an amazing answer.
You know, most people are likewell, we do some of these things
.
Literally, every one of ourteam members gives a portion of
their paycheck and then wedetermine where we want that to
go.
And that's awesome.
You know, a lot of companiesand corporate giving is like
that right.
And as we started talking aboutwhat are these opportunities
(19:04):
and we start, we we were talkingabout putting together an event
and standing in front of a bigcheck with our you know just us
and a few of our team membersand having the you know the team
in the audience and it's likewe're going to feel really good
for 15, for 15 minutes and thenwe're back at it and most of the
team doesn't feel the impact ofthat, because it's usually I.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
I mean, if you take a hundred, a company with a
hundred people, each of themhave different like notions or
desires or things that satisfytheir innate desire to become
philanthropic or to to see acause.
I mean somebody might, theymust, they might love the humane
society versus you know, cancerresearch or homeless shelters,
(19:44):
or you know cancer research orhomeless shelters, or you know?
I mean there's a myriad ofincredible causes desires and
think causes that get someoneexcited to give right.
Go ahead.
Sorry, no, this is great.
Not at all.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
But what?
What happened is we startedasking ourselves questions how
can we do more?
So, inspired by Davis Smith andwhat he's done with Cotopaxi
and you see, all those do goodstickers all over, which is
awesome.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
We've had him on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Davis is amazing.
Let's go do good.
But all of a sudden, when theopportunity presents itself,
what do you say?
Yeah, I would if I could.
I don't have.
And we said what if, instead ofstanding in front of this big
check, what if we empoweredevery one of our team members to
become the philanthropic arm ofour company where they see a
(20:38):
need, the opportunity to changethat narrative and say can I
help?
And I can help and I can dogood.
And we started doing thisreally because of COVID in 2020.
What can we do beyond just whatwe're doing right now for our
business, but for each other?
And the stories hundreds ofthem now from our team have been
(21:01):
so inspiring.
And now, instead of beinginward minded, our team is
outward minded and literallylooking for opportunities to do
good.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Yeah, it's to see how it's impacted our team, because
you have the whole gamut ofpeople with backgrounds, whether
it's religious backgrounds,cultural backgrounds, the way
they were raised, whatever it is.
We have members of variousChristian congregations, we have
atheists, we have agnostics.
We have across the whole board.
(21:33):
And that's probably been thebiggest impact that we've seen
is the change that's taken placeinside of their own hearts.
Right, because what we did iswe allocated money.
It wasn't their money, itwasn't coming out of their
paycheck.
We just said, hey, here's abudget that we're going to take,
that we're going to empower ourteam to become that
(21:55):
philanthropic arm of our company.
Not that other philanthropicactivities or philanthropies are
not important, they definitelyare.
There's so much good that'sdone out there, but what could
we do specifically for our teamthat will cause them to look
outside themselves?
Right, because in the processof looking outside themselves,
(22:16):
they become better people.
I got to actually share thisquote because you know the great
Bill Walton passed away, know,the great bill walton passed
away, passed away, and he saidhe said happiness begins where
(22:37):
selfishness ends.
Right, he's always a happy guy.
You know I'm who wouldn't behappy.
He went to he's great career,just a great career, but always
a smile on his face and thinkingoutward mind.
I think that's the key, right.
And so we've seen this processand when you have, you talk
about one kind act a day, or youtalk about Kodopaxi and do good
, they do so much good, butsometimes it becomes hard.
(23:00):
You, you get done with thehappiness summit and you're like
, yeah, you're on cloud, yeah,we're going to do this, we're
going to do this, we're going todo this, we're going to do all
this good.
And then life hits you the nextday You're busy and Monday hits
you and you've got all thesethings to worry about and bills
to take care of, and then youstop thinking about those things
that you were thinking about,about doing one kind act a day.
(23:21):
You pull back and you getinward and then, the moment you
do that, you start to, you startto find unhappiness, right, and
so what we've built is thisplatform that operationalizes
all of that.
That's what we actually toldCurtis when he first, when we
first met.
He's like I got to see what youguys are building.
He said we want to see what youguys are focused on.
(23:43):
And he was like you guys havebuilt a platform that enables
all of this to continue forward.
Um, we have one of our greatfriends, clint pulver.
You guys ought to have him onthe podcast if you haven't, but
he's a great speaker, just agreat individual, and he said
the same thing goes intocompanies and talks.
(24:05):
He'll do a huge.
You know he's talking to Pepsiand NASA and Costa Vita and
these huge companies and theycome out of there.
Yeah, we got to do this and andit's, but it's.
It's operationalizing it, it'sputting it into practice, it's a
return and report.
It's where your, your teammembers can be there and it's we
say that we're we'reaccountability partners in doing
(24:28):
good in this world.
And as you do that as a team,you become better husbands and
better fathers and bettermothers and better wives and
better community members andbetter future politicians and
better church members and bettereverything.
Because you have now it'sbecome ingrained in you that you
(24:51):
are constantly going to lookfor others, whether it's a
waiter or a waitress that'shaving a bad day, or maybe
they're just giving good serviceand they deserve more.
Or maybe it's somebody on theside of the road, or maybe it's
just somebody working behind thecounter at Subway and you
notice, man, and you know andyou empathize with them.
That's hard work and you sayhow is your day going?
(25:12):
Or the bag checker at thegrocery store.
These are the hundreds andhundreds of stories that we're
starting to accumulate fromthese companies, these
organizations that have joinedand become part of this, and our
goal is to turn this reallyinto the largest private social
feed of people doing good in theworld so that they can inspire
others with the different ideasthat they have.
(25:33):
That happens all the time.
One of our team members willreport back on the good, on this
experience that they had, andit inspires all of us.
Oh my gosh, I never eventhought of that sort of thing
that I could do in order to tobless somebody else's life.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
It's so true.
One of my favorite storiesstill was an early one, one of
our newer team members.
He's like I, kind of hesitated.
Every week we have theopportunity in our.
In our we call it lessons andblessings.
It was our lunch and learn, butwe have named by our team, which
was so awesome.
He said I don't know if this isa great story, cause I didn't
(26:10):
actually use any money, to youknow, to help anybody out.
He says I was driving home andI saw this mom she had the back
of her car open, baby in a carseat down below and just staring
at trying to get something outof the back of the car.
And he said, literally, youguys?
The thought came through mymind is what would my team do?
And he says I turned around andwent back and helped her and,
(26:32):
with tears running down her faceafter that, he helped her get
this thing out of the car.
She's like I am so grateful andso appreciative and there's
these little we call them microinteractions that we see every
day and an opportunity to dothis and as, as Greg talked
about, and I think, or you know,what kind of impact does this
have at home as well?
My son, prior to leaving on amission, worked at a bike shop
(26:55):
and he saw these actually, youknow, see a lot of here,
specifically in Utah twomissionaries coming in and their
bike was a mess.
His front tire was wobbling andit was a broken spoke.
The spoke is like three or fourbucks, but the labor is like 40
, you know to do this.
So my son, seeing kind of whatwe've done with build and bless
and how we're being outwardminded, he went to his manager
(27:17):
and he's like hey, can you justtake that out of my paycheck,
cause I know these missionarieshave no money?
And he's telling me this.
I'm like hey, bud, I'm like youremember building bus, right?
I said what's that invoicenumber?
And so while he was at school,I drove to the shop and I said,
(27:38):
hey, it's a manager here.
I knew him really well andthere was a newer employee there
that didn't recognize me.
He's like, yeah, is everythingokay?
I'm like, yeah, it's great, Ijust need to chat invoice number
.
And I gave it to him.
He's like that was themissionaries.
I said, hey, I want to pay forit.
He's like what I said, mycompany allows me to do this, to
do good.
So I never saw what theirreaction was when they came to
(27:59):
pick up the bike.
It's like, hey, it's taken careof.
But I saw his face and we havethese opportunities to see these
moments that make a differenceand then, going through, I
picked my kids up from school.
I'm like this is so great, I'mgoing to go take you guys to
lunch.
And we pull up to In-N-OutBurger, right, and the
drive-thru line is forever longit always is and so we go in and
(28:22):
have a great little lunch withtwo of my kiddos and as we're
leaving, it's's a colder day andit's been raining, and you know
they do that cool hot chocolate, you know, free hot chocolate
on this day.
But we were driving away andthere was this guy standing on
the side of the road and I, as Iturned the corner, I literally
the same thing my team do and Iturned around.
We waited in a drive-thru lineand, instead of just giving him
(28:44):
money, I handed, handed himsomething, and what was so
interesting is you see a lot ofthese people.
He literally took the food,started drinking the hot
chocolate and went over and satsomewhere else and ate.
And there's these opportunitiesthose are some of the most
clear that we see all the timebut there's these small moments
(29:04):
that can make a big differencein the life of someone.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Yeah, it's been cool to see them show up for each
other.
They show up for their teammore.
Now they start figuring outways to serve their team in
creative ways that they didn'tbefore.
They find a way to startserving their clients in
creative ways.
Corey, you're talking about theairport building.
You know, working on theairport Remind me of one of our
(29:29):
favorite, shannon.
It was her first month starting.
So she's like what is this?
Like company has given me moneyto go find people to do nice
things.
For what is this?
So?
She and talk about how itengages the whole family.
She takes this money and she'sflying to Park City.
She's in Kansas and she'sflying to park city.
She's in kansas and she'scoming to park city.
(29:49):
And it was when southwest hadtheir debacle you know just all
the flights and and.
But she felt empathy for allthe southwest workers that were,
you know, under the gun,feeling pretty bad.
So she takes her money, shegoes and buys a bunch of gift
cards and she starts handingthem out to all the Southwest.
You know the gate agent, thebaggage guy, all these people
(30:13):
and her husband does the samething.
So they're together.
She engages her whole family.
She engages her husband, whoare now, because of this
philosophy and because of thisplatform, are going out and and
improving the lives of thesepeople.
Like what?
Like everyone's yelling at us.
You're giving us a gift card.
Yeah, because she says it sucksto get yelled at for something
(30:33):
that you have no control over.
Right Story after story afterstory.
We could go on forever, but I'msure I love them.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I love the stories.
They're so cool.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
The great thing is these stories away from the mic,
but these stories are allcontained and you can see them.
You know you've got your yourcompany feed that will show you
everything that's happeninginside of your own company, but
then you hit the toggle switchand it says community.
So now you're starting to seestories from all the different
(31:04):
companies that are part of thebuild and bless community, from
their team members, for their,their employees, their managers,
their founders, theirexecutives.
They're sharing these storiesand we actually have.
If we, you know, if we had avideo, we can show you on a map.
But there's a map where you cansee these things happening in
real time all over the world.
So you see this, it's almostlike a little light that comes
(31:27):
on and you can see the, the logoof, that of, or the face of
that person with theirassociated company, you know.
So you got this person over inkansas doing this and in socal,
and maybe over in thephilippines and down in texas.
So these, these things are justblinking in real time.
You can see these thingsbecause we grab, you know, ip
information and and data.
(31:47):
So it places it on a map so youcan get a general idea of where
these things are happening.
So you're, you're visualizingthe world.
You know the company's always.
We're in business because we'regoing to change the world,
especially a lot of techcompanies.
A lot of tech companies likewe're going to change the world
with this technology that wecreate.
We literally think that we canimprove, truly improve, not just
(32:08):
change the world.
What does that mean?
Change?
Is it good?
Change for good, change for bad?
We literally believe that wecan improve the world, one micro
interaction at a time, as thistakes place and it spawns out,
and that you can actuallyvisualize the effect.
We say how do you measureculture?
How do you visualize culture?
We're making it so that you canvisualize culture improving and
(32:32):
the hearts improving of yourteam and then their communities,
and then the effects of what ittakes place, of what takes
place beyond that, that's superexcited about it and I have to
tell you one of the coolestthings, as we're rolling this
out now to other companies thisone amazing individual.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
he drives from Logan to Salt Lake to his office and
you're going to go throughpeople outside of Utah.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
That's about an hour and a half hour and 45.
Yeah, there's some context.
It's a long drive.
I'll just say that.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
And he, he was getting his tires done, tires
fixed and someone came in andwas you know, I need help with
my car.
There was a front tire thatneeded to be replaced.
I think she went in and out ofthe store Like I don't have
money for this, I don't knowwhat to do.
As he got called up, he went upand he's like hey, can you tell
(33:28):
me what's going on over there?
And she doesn't have money topay for her tire, she just needs
one tire.
And she's on her way.
He's like can I take care ofthat?
And the manager just sat there.
He was, he was describing thislike wait what?
And he says we can do betterthan that too.
And so he discounted the priceand was able to let this person
pay.
(33:48):
And then he left.
He said I probably wouldn'thave even thought about that.
I probably just would havelooked at who's this crazy
person like pull it together.
You know what he says.
This literally has changed myoutlook on finding opportunities
, and it was small.
You know what he was able to do.
But now I'm like, oh my gosh,that's the coolest thing,
especially growing up on a farm.
You look at tires and tread.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I'm not crazy guy that will roll down my window
and say hey, your tires are low.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
But I was just so inspired by these other stories
now that are starting to come inand getting us thinking outside
of ourselves, cause I think oneof the greatest dichotomies in
life is the degree to which wethink about ourselves, the
unhappier we are.
But the more we think aboutothers, the second we think
about others and someone else.
Not only are they helped andblessed, but we are too.
(34:35):
How does that work?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Well, and there's a third wheel.
In both the stories in the bikeshop and the tire shop, not
only were the person who blessedand went out of their way
because they saw the opportunityand the person who blessed and
went out of their way becausethey saw the opportunity and the
person who received blessed,but the bike shop employee and
the tire shop employee probablyalso saw an opportunity to be
kinder that day and they weretouched because of the kindness
(35:01):
of someone else.
So it's not just a two-waything, I think, and you know,
like the butterfly effect.
You know, one of them probablywent and had more of an, a
penchant to go do something kindfor someone else because they
saw it, and then you repeat theaction you see yeah, and it's
not only internally, or not onlyexternally, but also internally
(35:23):
too.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Um, my father passed away in sept September and that
final week I was there with himand I was realizing.
I was looking at my calendarthat week and I was like I don't
know how I've got to be herewith my family, but I also have
all these things that I need todo at work.
And it wasn't just a text fromGreg, it was a text from four or
(35:45):
five other people on my team.
They're like hey, but it was atext from four or five other
people on my team.
They're like hey, you focus onyour family, we've got you.
And to be able to step away andtake that is one of the most
incredible things ever.
And those seven, eight daysthat I was with my dad and my
family were some that you can'tget back.
And as we talk about thesemicro moments this is what life
(36:06):
is built on are these smallthings that you remember?
I remember when I looked downat my phone and saw that text.
I remember how I felt when wesee this and really you think
about it we're all here for eachother to try to help each other
be just a little bit better,and isn't it a miracle that we
can get better?
in any way and what we're tryingto accomplish.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
So how does?
A listener access this if theywant to.
Is this a app?
Is it on the internet?
Is it both?
And how do they access it?
How do they get into your worldif they want to?
Speaker 4 (36:40):
Yeah, so build them.
Blessedcom is a place to signup.
We do all of the onboarding.
Is a place to sign up.
We do all of the onboarding.
Um, there's, there's.
Obviously, you know, there'sgotta be a desktop version where
people can access it on theircomputers.
Um, we have an iOS app, androidapp, um, but we do all of the
(37:03):
onboarding because we want tojust take that hassle out of it.
We also have um if, ifcompanies or people feel like
they need it, we have access toall kinds of training helping
them figure out how to set corevalues were really big and
important on having core valuesthat are, like Derek likes to
say, are the guardrails thatkeep us going in the direction
that we want to go, towards ourvision or or fulfilling our
(37:26):
mission.
Um, but yeah, they just justcontact us.
We do all all the onboardingand help that entire process.
Everybody on the team we train.
We have an entire curriculumthat's done by some really cool
um trainers.
I don't know if you guys knowLisa, valentin Clark and your
host, bonner, and Kirby Hayborn,who's the host of making good,
(37:48):
a really cool TV show, sharonPrabacher.
I mean really dynamic trainersthat will take you through how
to implement this and takepieces and every culture is
different.
We like to say kind of thefirst slide on our deck that
says Build and Bless exists tomake bad cultures good and good
good cultures better and tochange human nature, because we
(38:11):
don't ever go into any companyassuming that they have a bad
culture.
We just say you might have agreat culture but there might be
some things that we can add toit.
Or there could be a reallyterrible culture where people
are just jumping ship and wantto get out of there quickly.
Um, can we help fix that, youknow, if they have the desire to
fix that.
And so both with you know sometraining and some philosophy
(38:33):
around it.
And then implementing theplatform where there's this
return and report and people arehelping each other out.
But we're there the whole way.
People get an account manager.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Is that done live, or is it done via zoom or?
Speaker 4 (38:50):
both it can be.
It can be either or or both.
Okay, companies can choose.
Hey, we're good, we understandit enough, and maybe we're not
that big.
I mean, we've got 50 or ahundred people, we can do this
ourself.
Or maybe it's bigger.
Company says, hey, we'd reallylike you to come in and bring
some people and help train ourpeople and implement it and help
(39:10):
make sure everybody's dialed inand their profile is updated.
Because that's another bigportion of it's not just this
portion of going out into thecommunity and blessings.
There's a very internalbusiness portion of it where we
feel a strong desire to get toknow each of our team members
really well and make sure thateach manager and each director
knows their team really well,because in order to serve them
(39:33):
the best that they can be served, they have to know them.
And so we start by building outan interest for him.
So, like I know what dessert helikes, so I'm not sending him
chocolate chip cookies when he'sallergic to chocolate or
something he sends me RiceKrispie treats yeah exactly.
(39:55):
We do that with our clients aswell, where we want to get to
know them really well so thatyou know, if you have a birthday
, we want to send you a text, wewant to send you a gift to show
you that we care.
I mean, that's going full circleback to what Derek talked about
being noticed.
That's like Dale Carnegie 101,right, like the most, the most
innate desire that each of ushave as human beings is to is to
(40:15):
feel important, to feel likewe're, we matter, that we're
noticed, and most people, whenthey have a birthday, come
around or an anniversary or somebig event in their life, they
get a text from maybe their mom,maybe their wife or their
husband, but sometimes theirkids will forget them.
I mean, it's the amount ofpeople that, at the end of the
(40:38):
day, remember important thingsand make people feel special.
The amount of people that reachout to help people when they
don't necessarily need somethingin return is very small, and so
that's the other portion of itis that we want to try to build
internally a culture of thinkingabout the other people, making
sure that they feel important,making sure that they feel
(41:00):
recognized, and so we've builtthat into the platform as well.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
That's killer yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
One of the coolest things.
I was thinking about this, uh,claude Silver, who's the chief
heart officer for VaynerMedia.
I had the opportunity to listento her speak up in park city a
few years ago and and the wordsshe said on a slide in in the
past, jobs were about muscle andwork right, jobs are about
muscle.
Um, today they're brains andtomorrow they'll be about heart,
(41:27):
and tomorrow is here.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Oh, I like that.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
And it's so true to see people want, now more than
ever, purpose in what they'redoing and that I'm doing an
important work that actuallymatters and makes a difference,
and I think every one of us, nomatter where we are, where we
sit in any organization that'sthe beauty of it you can make a
difference right.
(41:51):
Small and simple thingsmultiplied by time, equal the
greatest results.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
I love that.
Very quotable, derek, veryquotable.
Well, that's awesome.
I feel like anybody who has acompany that listens to this
ought to look into this.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Well, I'm going to.
It's awesome for our companyfor sure, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
I just think it's cool, Cause everybody is
familiar with the big checkscenario you know, and you feel
kind of disconnected from thatif it's not your thing.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Yeah, yeah, we've had that for years and we have
multiple different offices andin construction then you're
broken apart again, so you haveoffices in different locations,
kind of have subcultures.
Then you have projects wherepeople are on projects, so we
have about 2,000 employees, butthose 2,000 employees are spread
(42:42):
over everywhere, right, and soit's hard to get a feeling of
unity, even when we're doing acharitable donation or a
charitable cause or giving timeto charity, right.
So we typically have thedifferent businesses and people
have their own charities that wesupport, yeah, and then we do
(43:02):
something globally as a company.
But this is way more to theheart of the matter.
I mean it.
It just makes a lot of a lot ofsense to me.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
And cool that you guys have given it a system that
makes it easy, that you don'thave to.
You know you have to thinkabout it, but once you plug into
the system it kind of snowballs.
Speaker 4 (43:21):
And you get.
You get to draw upon theingenuity and the inspiration of
each individual person.
So imagine, as you're lookingthrough your coming, you see, uh
, you know, a person at office.
10, you know whatever it is,you know, you know that happens
as you grow.
It's like there's more and moreofficers, more and more places,
(43:43):
and you're only one person, soyou get.
But imagine you're seeing thiscome in and and so and so did
this thing, and you're, you keyinto it and you you're able to
comment on it and say, oh mygosh, great job, and and you can
encourage that behavior.
And they start to do thatpeer-to-peer.
Where they're, they're just,they're building their own
(44:04):
positive communities everywherethat they are and it's
contagious.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
That was the thing for us too, and when we talked
about when the genesis of thisstarted, I literally think about
every one of our team membersin their home, wherever they're
at.
How can they feel what we havewhen they're not here?
And this became that was kindof the question we asked.
Is I get to see Greg all thetime, which is awesome.
(44:31):
A lot of our team members don'tget to see and experience what
I do.
How can we have something wherewe can all share, all celebrate
, all shine a light on theamazing things that are
happening?
So kind of that.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Well, the way that you guys have automated it and
it's happening essentiallyorganically and people can see
it happening.
The only way I could do thattoday is, let's say, like our
Midwest team puts in a handicapramp for someone, which is
something they've done a coupleof times Just awesome, being
nice to someone in the community, right, great, great.
(45:08):
The only way I the rest of myassociates know that in any
other office is that we putsomething together and we post
it on our intranet or we post itsocially or and then times that
by however many offices andgroups.
It's basically an impossibletask to proactively try to stay
on top of all the great thingspeople are doing, whether that
be charity or just doing anamazing job at work, or just
(45:30):
going the extra mile you name itwinning a new customer.
It's really hard at scale tohave that communicated in any
good economical way.
So, in a real way, this isenormous um communication tool.
Speaker 4 (45:49):
Yeah, it's really cool we're actually taking all
those experiences too, and atthe end of the year we roll them
up almost as like a yearbook,like here's all these things
where.
So you're documenting.
Not only are you, are youinspiring and growing and
building people, honestly you're, you're making better people at
every single turn, but at theend of the day, you're able to
document.
(46:10):
You know so, when Big D, it'sall said and done, I mean
there's going to be lots ofevidence of the fruit of the
work, but to have thatdocumented somewhere, you're
like, oh my gosh, I rememberwhen so-and-so did that.
I remember when so-and-so didthat.
I remember when that person'slife was changed.
I remember when so-and-so didthat.
(46:33):
I remember when that person'slife was changed.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
I remember that person's life was saved because
somebody did such and such likeso powerful to have that
documentation.
And we started to reallyfocusing on mental health a
couple of years ago which thisis part and parcel to that in my
mind and it made this enormousdifference for us to just be
okay talking about it, talkabout it, talking about ways to
deal with it, talking about waysto not deal with it, and I
think this would go hand in handwith that.
(46:56):
Right, you talked about, Ithink, muscle, mind and heart,
and that's a heart thing.
You've got to be prettyvulnerable and pretty open to
say, hey, I'm having some mentalhealth issues.
More people are than you mightthink pretty vulnerable and
pretty open to say, hey, I'mhaving some mental health issues
.
Yeah, um, more people are thanyou might think, and that's what
we're realizing in today'ssociety, right, but this is a
wonderful way for people to openup to each other, to be more
(47:18):
kind, to be more open.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
So killer job guys.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
It's a really good idea.
Thank you so much Coming fromthese guys, I don't think I'm
surprised.
No, how long has the this beenavailable to other companies
besides your own?
Speaker 4 (47:35):
January 1st of this year.
Okay, We've we've used itourselves internally for, um,
you know, two to three years andit got to the point where both
small and large companies wereasking us hey, can we use that?
I?
Speaker 3 (47:50):
have to tell you.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
We're doing this internally, so we worked really
hard.
We've developed other platformsand applications before, but
this is the one we're mostpassionate about, so it's sort
of an organic.
You know one of thosesituations where a really good
product comes out of almost, youknow, not expected.
(48:12):
I mean, slack came out of acompany that was doing like
video game design and all thesethings, and so it's really just
been sort of a demand thingwhere, like man, we'd love to
implement that in our company.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
One of our clients didn't show up for a regular
scheduled meeting and one of ourteam members sent them a
spoonful of comfort.
It showed up on their frontdoorstep Next thing.
She's like who are you guys,Can you?
Speaker 4 (48:37):
teach me how to do this.
I shined you at a meeting andyou and you send me a gift.
What?
Speaker 3 (48:43):
That's great, it doesn't happen.
So that's where it kind ofstarted to we're what?
That's great, it doesn't happen.
So that's where it kind ofstarted too.
We're like can we use this?
Can you guys show us how to dothis?
Maybe we're onto something.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
You're definitely onto something I'm always
preaching that if you want aloyal client, then you have to
do something more than expected.
Right?
And the construction industrysaid look, team on time, on
budget, high quality and safe.
Those aren't easy, but they'reprerequisites.
That's what they pay us to do.
(49:15):
They pay us to do those things.
You have to go above and beyondand touch their heart.
Right, you actually care, yougot to care and you've got to
make them feel like.
I didn't expect that I like touse the word surprise, surprise
and delight.
Right, that I like to use theword surprise, surprise and
delight.
Right?
So this is a way to make that apart of your culture.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Right?
That's cool, that's right.
Yeah, very cool, super excited.
Well, in a couple of years, um,maybe we need to have you guys
back on and talk about the lasttwo years of the explosive
growth of build than bless,because I think it's going to be
a cool story I think thefunnest thing to you know to
bring this, bring this backaround teaching our kids to be
(49:54):
outward minded, right?
Speaker 3 (49:57):
we have numerous stories of one of our team
members.
I can still hear it in my she'slike their, their child saw a
need, just like mommy.
We need to help because of this, right, and that's what.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
That's what's so incredible about these You're
creating awareness not just foryour employees, but with their
whole family.
Speaker 4 (50:15):
Their generations.
Yeah, it is the most excitingthing.
We have so many mothers.
You know that, that work andbecause you know of the remote
nature not every job can beremote, but that work, and
because you know of the remotenature and not every job can be
remote but some aspects are, andand so we've created this way
that that these mother, you know, with young kids, can still
(50:36):
work and and now they sharethese stories and they say, um,
my kids don't know any differentthan to live this philosophy.
So everywhere they go they'relike who can we, who can we
build them?
Bless mommy.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
That's great, it's amazing, so cool.
I'm a firm believer that youcan't be a gentleman if you're
not situationally aware.
Yeah, because that's, to me,where all of the gentlemanly
acts come from.
When you, when you look outsideyourself and see the needs of
others, that's what makes you agentleman.
And unless you're aware ofthose around you which is what
(51:13):
this is promoting andencouraging you can't.
Speaker 3 (51:17):
You can't be a gentleman because you're
inwardly focused, so great job,yeah, and I think the true test
of character right Is to becompassionate at every step,
right.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
That's awesome.
So I'm going to ask you again,Derek, because at the end of
every podcast we ask what youthink it means to be a gentleman
.
I know you've answered this,but it's been a couple of years,
so maybe it's changed, and thenwe'll let Greg answer that
question.
Speaker 3 (51:44):
I think I would say now is to be outward minded,
right and always look for othersand how you can help, because
there are always needs and whenyou can lift someone up, make
their day a little bit better,even with a smile.
These small acts and microinteractions make a big
difference in being seen.
Speaker 4 (52:06):
Yeah, oh man.
Speaker 3 (52:12):
I better answer this right.
Speaker 4 (52:13):
So when my wife listens, I'm trying to think of
what she would say.
I just I know how I feel andand for me, being a gentleman is
is um, having respect for thosearound you, specifically your
wife, your kids, looking for?
(52:35):
We tell our kids every timethey go to a dance, we say, find
the loneliest person in theroom and go, ask them to dance.
So, situationally aware, beingempathetic this is at the core
of all this, the things thatyou're talking about.
But being empathetic andplacing yourself in the
situation of others.
I know this.
(52:56):
I don't think this is areligious type podcast, but it's
.
You know, there's a scripturethat I love where it talks about
pure religion and undefiledbefore God is to visit the
fatherless and the widows.
And it's not like, why werethose?
Why is the fatherless and thewidows?
And it's not like, why werethose?
Why is the fatherless and thewidows chosen?
It's not just them that need.
They were chosen as arepresentation and in our world
(53:17):
today, we hear a lot aboutreligion, and religion just
broken down in the Latin asreligare, which means to rebind
or to reconnect, and I thinkthat is, empathetically, at the
core of all this is that you'reable to go and reconnect and
help bring things together andto be empathetic, reconnect with
(53:43):
humanity and be situationallyaware that you're able to,
everywhere you go, be a lightand be someone that leaves
everything that you touch betterthan you found it.
That that, to me, is the coreof of being a gentleman Good job
.
Speaker 2 (54:03):
I like it, I love it.
Thanks, gentlemen.
Okay, so build been blesscom Ifyou're interested in the
platform, which you ought to beif you own a company.
Also, you guys have a podcastfor the lemonade stand.
They have some amazing guestson there.
You want to do a quick plug foryour podcast?
Speaker 3 (54:23):
Go ahead.
Lemonade stand stories and wetalked to a lot of people about
turning life's lemons intolemonade and working on a Build
Then Bless podcast too.
Speaker 2 (54:34):
So stay tuned.
Hey cool, that's awesome.
So go check them out.
Drop them a rating and a reviewif you like it.
Do the same for us.
That'd be awesome, corey, and Iwould appreciate that.
That gets us in front of morepeople, more eyeballs, and gets
messages like Greg's and Derek'sout to the world.
So thanks so much for joiningus guys.
We really appreciate your time.
(54:55):
Thanks for joining us on thepodcast today and investing your
time with us.
I'm Kirk Chug and I'm CoreyMoore.
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm.
Welcome to the Gentleman Project Podcast.
I'm Corey Moore and I'm KirkChug.
We've got a repeat offender inthe house today, derek Miner.
He's one of our best GentlemanProject advocates.
He was on the original board ofthe Gentleman Project and he's
just always been an advocate forwhat we're doing.
So grateful to have him back inthe podcast studio.
He brought someone with himtoday that I've always respected
(00:22):
as well.
He's also been an advocate forthe Gentleman Project, greg
Trimble.
They're partners in business,great friends, and they're
working on something really,really cool.
About a month and a half, twomonths ago, we were all at the
Kindness Summit.
All four of us were invited byour good friend, curtis Bennett,
(00:42):
and as we were listening tothese messages, I got to sit by
Derek, talk to Derek, and hesaid we're doing this, we have
codified this, we've gamifiedthis.
This is culture that we've beenworking on for our biggest
project right now, and I saidwhy don't you come on the
podcast and talk about it?
(01:03):
And the next time I saw Derek,he sent me home with t-shirts
and my wife's been wearing thet-shirts they're a great workout
shirts, derek, by the way, andwe're just excited to hear what
you guys have been working on.
So first, for people thathaven't listened to your first
podcast, derek, introduceyourself, and then let Greg
(01:23):
introduce himself and kind ofget a feeling for who you guys
are.
Family makeup real quick, andthen we want to talk about build
them Bless.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Awesome, wow, thanks so much for having me back.
You say you guys came.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
It wasn't hard, no, it was easy, it must've been
really good.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Oh, this is.
This is awesome.
So inspired by the work thatyou're doing right around things
that matter the very most.
I think now, when we're soconnected with our devices and
with technology, the opportunityto be truly connected not only
with amazing people but alsowith our kids, with things and
moments that matter the most.
That's really as we've kind ofzoomed out to saying what
(02:03):
matters, what really matters.
It was so fun I was having aconversation with he was six at
the time my son and I said, bud,tell me, what are you thinking
about right now?
You know, and he said mattering.
I'm like whoa, that literallyjust for me.
I'm like what matters to him,it's just mattering, and I
(02:25):
thought that's just sointeresting.
All of us want to matter insome way, doing something, doing
important work, but so thrilledto be here again with you guys
and just again inspired by whatyou do.
By way of background, I loveUtah and Utah can't get rid of
me either.
I grew up on a ranch andlearned the value of what it's
(02:46):
like to care for things, notonly caring for animals, but
caring for other people,learning the value of hard work,
and one of the greatestblessings was learning how to
work and learning how to buildmeaningful relationships, and
I've tried to do that with mywonderful family.
I've got an incredible familymy son's in Argentina on a
mission and my youngest littleprincess is five years old and
(03:11):
she has this all wrapped aroundher finger.
But love doing work that mattersas well, and with incredible
people so thrilled to have theopportunity to work with Greg
and so many incredible people atLemonade Stand and what we've
been building and trying to makea difference in the lives of
our not only our team membersbut also our clients, and that's
(03:34):
kind of where Build.
Then Bless came as a result ofthat.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So give us a little background on Lemonade Stand so
that people know what that is.
Go ahead, Derek.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Oh, okay.
Yeah, it's kind of funnybecause when we tell people we
work at Lemonade Stand, they'relike what.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
You work at a lemonade stand.
You're the kids at the end ofthe block.
No, it's not in the street.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
It's my favorite because my kids are like what
does your dad do for work?
He works at a lemonade standand everyone's like, wait, what
yeah, I do for work?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
He works at a lemonade stand and everyone's
like wait what?
Yeah, yeah, Does he have abusiness permit?
Though?
Yes, we do.
It's so interesting, right.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
All the, all the dynamics that go into running a
business and the complicationsthat go into that.
But just quick littlebackground on myself.
I I started a tech company incollege it's called simple tech.
Um sold it, uh, in about threeyears.
It grew pretty quickly, but itit just wasn't the style of
business that I enjoyed the most.
(04:29):
So I took a portion of that andthen started lemonade stand and
the.
The foundation of that is thatevery single business
essentially starts as a lemonadestand in some way, shape or
form, right when you're.
You have this great idea.
You've you've dreamed a bigdream.
(04:51):
You need to execute on thatdream.
You've essentially made yourlemonade and you need to sell it
.
You need people to find it.
But what happens with alemonade stand?
You often have people on theside of the road sitting there
with a sign.
They have a full picture oflemonade and they often go back
into the house with a fullpitcher of lemonade, right.
And so that's one of thebiggest, most important pieces
(05:13):
of building a business isbuilding a brand that people can
trust, that they can trust thatthat lemonade is good and it's
clean and it's it tastes rightand it's not going to make you
sick and you know that's, that'sthe brand.
And then how do you get theword out that what you've built
and what you've created issomething that is worth buying
and worth people wanting to dobusiness?
I have this strong belief,especially nowadays with
(05:37):
marketing advertising, thatpeople want to do business with
those that they know, like andtrust and, at the end of the day
, that's what it all boils downto, and I know that you guys
know that as well.
Your reputation is everythingand that's what we've tried to
do with digital marketing agency.
We have most of our team inUtah, but we have team scattered
(05:59):
out throughout the country.
We do process payroll in about15 or 16 states and, uh, hybrid
and remote team.
But it's awesome.
I have an amazing family.
Um, we're kind of freaking outas of today, today, right now,
both of our kids we have twokids and they are on their way
to bear lake their first time usbeing without them on their own
(06:24):
, driving you know, know away,and so we're.
We're just freaking out becausewe're going to be empty nesters
here in about a year and, um,but we, we really have tried to
be intentional with raising them.
And for myself I can speak formyself being a good man and a
good husband and a good father.
That's what's most important tome above all.
(06:46):
Um, that's my business.
You know that's, that's thething that I care most about,
and you know that I if any ofyour listeners are over here
four or five years ago um, thatwas the first book that I wrote
was about dads.
Dads who stay and fight, dadswho stay and fight.
And how important it is that, asmen, we step up and do what
(07:10):
we're supposed to do while wehave the time to do it.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Those moments are fleeting.
They go by so fast.
Yeah, they do.
I had one of those similarmoments, like this weekend we
drove up to the ranch and weneeded some extra seats and I'm
following my boys that were likeI remember these little boys
like just sitting up on theirown and I'm like someday they're
(07:36):
going to be men and they're inthe truck in front of me, you
know, driving on their ownthrough the canyon over dirt
roads, and I'm not worried aboutthem.
But I kind of had one of thosemoments like wow, they have
grown up like just right beforemy eyes.
So that's super cool.
Thank you, and a shout out toyou too, greg.
(07:57):
Like when we were working onone of our projects, you said
you know anybody who's involvedwith the gentleman project.
Send me a spreadsheet of theiraddresses.
I'm sending them a book.
And he sent a free book toeverybody who supported us.
Well, that's killer.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
And I'll never forget that.
I've grown up kind of as a dadreading the words of Greg,
because you were like anoriginal blogger too.
You know he almost everythingyou ever wrote on Facebook back
then went viral and he's justgot away with words.
And so I kind of grew up as ayoung dad reading your words and
(08:40):
I and I respected you for, forthe things that you talked about
and and the things that you youpreached about family and faith
, and so that means a ton.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
It helped me as a young dad, not knowing what I
was doing.
I would, I would read what youwrote and I'm like this guy's.
This guy's a strength to me.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Oh, thank you.
You think about the name ofyour podcast?
It's that's.
My wife says that all the time.
Teach our son to become agentleman.
You know to do the things thatvery few men are doing across
the world nowadays, which is tostep up and to, to shape up and
(09:22):
to be what has become a relic inour society to be a gentleman.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
So thank you for your work, do you guys?
Do you guys look back now,where I know you still have a
young one at home, but do youlook back?
But you also have older onesany young ones empty, empty.
You know I'm looking at theempty nester thing and I'm
probably, you know, six, sevenyears away, but I have my first
one leaving for college in likethree weeks.
(09:48):
Do you look back on what you'vedone so far and you say, oh man
, I'm glad I did these one ortwo things.
Does anything stand out in yourmind now that you've had some
time under your belt where yougo?
Man, I'm so glad I did thesefew, one or two things.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Wow.
Well, I think in life there'stwo things we always say right,
I'm glad I did, or I wish Iwould have.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
And I was talking with Kirk just last month and
talking about something that heactually introduced to me
because of the gentleman project, which was taking time
intentionally with each one ofmy kids one-on-one and when you
have six kids that can take alot of time.
But it was something that Iintentionally tried to do and
(10:34):
now, as I think about it, it'salmost become a natural process.
Oh, that's great when I can bewith just one of my kids
one-on-one, which is so much funBecause now I want them.
I think ultimate success isthat our kids want to hang out
with us not only now but later,right.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I think that that's.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
That's a signal that we're we've done something right
, but that's that's somethingthat I learned from from Kirk,
and one of the things that Istarted doing, too, is I start
writing down some of the thingsthat my kids say that are just
so great and, like I shared withmy son, said I'm like this is
so good and there's all theseamazing things that they share
(11:15):
and they talk about, sosometimes so out of context and
so random, but it's just so pure.
Those two things have madeprobably the biggest difference
and impact in my life.
One of the other things andI've gotten well mixed reviews
None of our kids are on socialmedia and they haven't.
In fact, it was so funny whenmy, when my son showed up and
(11:37):
he's like now that you're on amission, you got to.
You know it's.
Here's your Facebook page.
Like all right, can you teachme how to do this?
In fact, he had to create hisfirst LinkedIn profile because
of a business class he took inhigh school, and so we were
walking through that.
He's like how does this evenwork?
And some of his posts are someof my favorite, as I was
thinking about that, um, but Iasked my daughter the other day.
I said hey, do you feel likeyou're missing out?
(11:59):
She says no, she says that Ilike connecting with people in
real life, and I think those arejust a few things that we've
tried to be intentional about.
That, as I look back and wedon't know the ramifications,
what our kids have heard, whatthey haven't heard but it's
these little moments that wehave that I want to always
(12:21):
remember.
But small things, I always saysmall things multiplied by time,
are what equal the greatestresults.
And it's doing these smallthings, repeatedly spending time
one on one right, seeing themin real life.
I love skiing and you can't goanywhere on a chairlift, so it's
like, hey, what's up?
And that was a decision that Imade too but all these, all
(12:41):
these little things that wedon't get these moments back
right, and so are we making themost of them, rather than being
connected on a device, beingconnected in real life?
Speaker 4 (12:50):
That's awesome, I think.
For me it's just beenprioritizing them ahead of
everything.
There's this really quick storythat I loved about Clayton
Christensen, Harvard businessprofessor, innovator's dilemma.
I mean how?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
will you measure your ?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
life.
How will you measure?
Speaker 4 (13:08):
your life.
I mean, some of the greatestlessons.
Um, probably the greatestlesson I think I learned from
studying him was that he he, himand his wife were were buying a
new house.
They bought a new house.
They saw the plot of land, theysaw this corner and they said,
man, that'd be perfect for alittle tree house.
(13:29):
You know a little place, andhis kid and they decided where
they would build it.
They specced it out and theywere going to do all this.
And the kids just loved itEvery single day.
They couldn't wait for dad toget home so that they could
build that thing together.
They waited for dad to get homeso that they could build that
(13:50):
thing together.
They waited for him to get okay, what are we going to do?
And that's all.
It consumed all their time.
That's all they wanted to do.
And so he did that with them,worked along side by side with
them to build this tree house.
And he said, um, after it wasall said and done, he said it
was a highlight of his life, ahighlight of his kid's life.
His kids will always rememberthose times that they spent.
And he said I shudder to thinkthat I almost bought a kit from
(14:11):
which I would have built thatmyself so that I could have got
it done quick, so that they hada treehouse.
They didn't want to hang out inthe treehouse, they wanted to
build and create alongside dad.
And so for me that's been fromday one.
I've tried to prioritize andbuild and shape my lifestyle, my
(14:40):
career, my business, evenchurch callings or whatever it
might be.
Nothing takes precedent overthe time that I need to take to
make sure that they feelimportant and the time is like I
have a year left and thenthey're gone.
They're, they're gone, they'reout and they'll never probably
live with us again.
I know that's sometimes thathappens, but that's it.
(15:04):
And in that book I actuallywrote a chapter on the golden
years.
Everyone talks about the goldenyears.
It's like those are the yearsyou know kids are gone and your
business is good and these arethe years you can retire and
feel, enjoy your life.
I'm like your golden years.
You have about 20 years.
Those are your golden years andit might be hard, it might be
(15:26):
stressful, there might be tonsof anxiety, all these
responsibilities, but those arethe golden years and to not
overlook those and to not takethose for granted and to put
every last ounce of energy intothose golden years and then,
when they're out, okay I'll,I'll work more, I'll, I'll do
(15:47):
what.
You know.
You can do different things, butjust making them keeping the
main thing.
The main thing husband, father,to be a good husband and good
father, that's that's been mygoal.
Is that when I, when I die anddeath is, it feels like it's
always before me.
I always am.
Maybe it's a fatalist.
I think it's more being arealist, because every day you
(16:09):
wake up and there's anotherfriend that's down.
Um, there's a passage that Ilove.
It says our lives passed away,as it were, unto us a dream, and
each of us, I think, if we'rebeing real, we we understand
that concept and to always makesure that you make every single
(16:29):
second, every single day, everysingle year count during those
years, with your kids as afamily, to do those things.
That's what's been mostimportant to me.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
You guys talk a lot about the culture in your family
and the things that youprioritize the most.
You've also been verysuccessful at translating that
into business, and so I want totalk about Build, then Bless.
Tell people what it is, becauseI think it's a revolutionary
(17:01):
idea and everyone's familiarwith the status quo when it
comes to corporate culture andwe talk mostly about taking
corporate ideas and putting theminto the family.
We're kind of going backwardson this one just a little bit,
but I think this is such a coolproject that people should hear
about.
We want to give you guys aplatform to talk about it man
(17:22):
we're yeah, this is where westart.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I just have to say one of the things, too, I get to
learn from Greg every day.
It's an incredible blessingbecause when he talks about
being an incredible, you knowhusband and father and giving
free books.
You know, as you mentioned, Istarted with Greg after we
stayed in touch for severalyears.
We decided to work together andI joined Lemonade Stand on
(17:47):
March 9th 2020, a week after theentire world unraveled and here
Greg's just brought me on.
Our clients were all panicking.
No one knew really what wasgoing to happen and people were
pausing their budgets.
And Greg looked at me and I'mlike I remember this from 08, 09
being in this, but Greg'sperspective always was this hey,
(18:12):
for the clients who can't pay,we're going to continue to do
work for them without thempaying, and those are still
clients of ours today.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
All right Pat.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
But it's not just, it's not how he shows up.
How he shows up at work isexactly how he shows up at home,
which is so inspiring to me.
And when we joined, when Istarted, you know, when we were
having conversations, I saidtell me one of the things that
you're doing outside of justmaking money to make a
difference and to make an impactin the world.
And he had an amazing answeryou and to make an impact in the
(18:44):
world.
And he had an amazing answer.
You know, most people are likewell, we do some of these things
.
Literally, every one of ourteam members gives a portion of
their paycheck and then wedetermine where we want that to
go.
And that's awesome.
You know, a lot of companiesand corporate giving is like
that right.
And as we started talking aboutwhat are these opportunities
(19:04):
and we start, we we were talkingabout putting together an event
and standing in front of a bigcheck with our you know just us
and a few of our team membersand having the you know the team
in the audience and it's likewe're going to feel really good
for 15, for 15 minutes and thenwe're back at it and most of the
team doesn't feel the impact ofthat, because it's usually I.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
I mean, if you take a hundred, a company with a
hundred people, each of themhave different like notions or
desires or things that satisfytheir innate desire to become
philanthropic or to to see acause.
I mean somebody might, theymust, they might love the humane
society versus you know, cancerresearch or homeless shelters,
(19:44):
or you know cancer research orhomeless shelters, or you know?
I mean there's a myriad ofincredible causes desires and
think causes that get someoneexcited to give right.
Go ahead.
Sorry, no, this is great.
Not at all.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
But what?
What happened is we startedasking ourselves questions how
can we do more?
So, inspired by Davis Smith andwhat he's done with Cotopaxi
and you see, all those do goodstickers all over, which is
awesome.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
We've had him on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Davis is amazing.
Let's go do good.
But all of a sudden, when theopportunity presents itself,
what do you say?
Yeah, I would if I could.
I don't have.
And we said what if, instead ofstanding in front of this big
check, what if we empoweredevery one of our team members to
become the philanthropic arm ofour company where they see a
(20:38):
need, the opportunity to changethat narrative and say can I
help?
And I can help and I can dogood.
And we started doing thisreally because of COVID in 2020.
What can we do beyond just whatwe're doing right now for our
business, but for each other?
And the stories hundreds ofthem now from our team have been
(21:01):
so inspiring.
And now, instead of beinginward minded, our team is
outward minded and literallylooking for opportunities to do
good.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Yeah, it's to see how it's impacted our team, because
you have the whole gamut ofpeople with backgrounds, whether
it's religious backgrounds,cultural backgrounds, the way
they were raised, whatever it is.
We have members of variousChristian congregations, we have
atheists, we have agnostics.
We have across the whole board.
(21:33):
And that's probably been thebiggest impact that we've seen
is the change that's taken placeinside of their own hearts.
Right, because what we did iswe allocated money.
It wasn't their money, itwasn't coming out of their
paycheck.
We just said, hey, here's abudget that we're going to take,
that we're going to empower ourteam to become that
(21:55):
philanthropic arm of our company.
Not that other philanthropicactivities or philanthropies are
not important, they definitelyare.
There's so much good that'sdone out there, but what could
we do specifically for our teamthat will cause them to look
outside themselves?
Right, because in the processof looking outside themselves,
(22:16):
they become better people.
I got to actually share thisquote because you know the great
Bill Walton passed away, know,the great bill walton passed
away, passed away, and he saidhe said happiness begins where
(22:37):
selfishness ends.
Right, he's always a happy guy.
You know I'm who wouldn't behappy.
He went to he's great career,just a great career, but always
a smile on his face and thinkingoutward mind.
I think that's the key, right.
And so we've seen this processand when you have, you talk
about one kind act a day, or youtalk about Kodopaxi and do good
, they do so much good, butsometimes it becomes hard.
(23:00):
You, you get done with thehappiness summit and you're like
, yeah, you're on cloud, yeah,we're going to do this, we're
going to do this, we're going todo this, we're going to do all
this good.
And then life hits you the nextday You're busy and Monday hits
you and you've got all thesethings to worry about and bills
to take care of, and then youstop thinking about those things
that you were thinking about,about doing one kind act a day.
(23:21):
You pull back and you getinward and then, the moment you
do that, you start to, you startto find unhappiness, right, and
so what we've built is thisplatform that operationalizes
all of that.
That's what we actually toldCurtis when he first, when we
first met.
He's like I got to see what youguys are building.
He said we want to see what youguys are focused on.
(23:43):
And he was like you guys havebuilt a platform that enables
all of this to continue forward.
Um, we have one of our greatfriends, clint pulver.
You guys ought to have him onthe podcast if you haven't, but
he's a great speaker, just agreat individual, and he said
the same thing goes intocompanies and talks.
(24:05):
He'll do a huge.
You know he's talking to Pepsiand NASA and Costa Vita and
these huge companies and theycome out of there.
Yeah, we got to do this and andit's, but it's.
It's operationalizing it, it'sputting it into practice, it's a
return and report.
It's where your, your teammembers can be there and it's we
say that we're we'reaccountability partners in doing
(24:28):
good in this world.
And as you do that as a team,you become better husbands and
better fathers and bettermothers and better wives and
better community members andbetter future politicians and
better church members and bettereverything.
Because you have now it'sbecome ingrained in you that you
(24:51):
are constantly going to lookfor others, whether it's a
waiter or a waitress that'shaving a bad day, or maybe
they're just giving good serviceand they deserve more.
Or maybe it's somebody on theside of the road, or maybe it's
just somebody working behind thecounter at Subway and you
notice, man, and you know andyou empathize with them.
That's hard work and you sayhow is your day going?
(25:12):
Or the bag checker at thegrocery store.
These are the hundreds andhundreds of stories that we're
starting to accumulate fromthese companies, these
organizations that have joinedand become part of this, and our
goal is to turn this reallyinto the largest private social
feed of people doing good in theworld so that they can inspire
others with the different ideasthat they have.
(25:33):
That happens all the time.
One of our team members willreport back on the good, on this
experience that they had, andit inspires all of us.
Oh my gosh, I never eventhought of that sort of thing
that I could do in order to tobless somebody else's life.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
It's so true.
One of my favorite storiesstill was an early one, one of
our newer team members.
He's like I, kind of hesitated.
Every week we have theopportunity in our.
In our we call it lessons andblessings.
It was our lunch and learn, butwe have named by our team, which
was so awesome.
He said I don't know if this isa great story, cause I didn't
(26:10):
actually use any money, to youknow, to help anybody out.
He says I was driving home andI saw this mom she had the back
of her car open, baby in a carseat down below and just staring
at trying to get something outof the back of the car.
And he said, literally, youguys?
The thought came through mymind is what would my team do?
And he says I turned around andwent back and helped her and,
(26:32):
with tears running down her faceafter that, he helped her get
this thing out of the car.
She's like I am so grateful andso appreciative and there's
these little we call them microinteractions that we see every
day and an opportunity to dothis and as, as Greg talked
about, and I think, or you know,what kind of impact does this
have at home as well?
My son, prior to leaving on amission, worked at a bike shop
(26:55):
and he saw these actually, youknow, see a lot of here,
specifically in Utah twomissionaries coming in and their
bike was a mess.
His front tire was wobbling andit was a broken spoke.
The spoke is like three or fourbucks, but the labor is like 40
, you know to do this.
So my son, seeing kind of whatwe've done with build and bless
and how we're being outwardminded, he went to his manager
(27:17):
and he's like hey, can you justtake that out of my paycheck,
cause I know these missionarieshave no money?
And he's telling me this.
I'm like hey, bud, I'm like youremember building bus, right?
I said what's that invoicenumber?
And so while he was at school,I drove to the shop and I said,
(27:38):
hey, it's a manager here.
I knew him really well andthere was a newer employee there
that didn't recognize me.
He's like, yeah, is everythingokay?
I'm like, yeah, it's great, Ijust need to chat invoice number
.
And I gave it to him.
He's like that was themissionaries.
I said, hey, I want to pay forit.
He's like what I said, mycompany allows me to do this, to
do good.
So I never saw what theirreaction was when they came to
(27:59):
pick up the bike.
It's like, hey, it's taken careof.
But I saw his face and we havethese opportunities to see these
moments that make a differenceand then, going through, I
picked my kids up from school.
I'm like this is so great, I'mgoing to go take you guys to
lunch.
And we pull up to In-N-OutBurger, right, and the
drive-thru line is forever longit always is and so we go in and
(28:22):
have a great little lunch withtwo of my kiddos and as we're
leaving, it's's a colder day andit's been raining, and you know
they do that cool hot chocolate, you know, free hot chocolate
on this day.
But we were driving away andthere was this guy standing on
the side of the road and I, as Iturned the corner, I literally
the same thing my team do and Iturned around.
We waited in a drive-thru lineand, instead of just giving him
(28:44):
money, I handed, handed himsomething, and what was so
interesting is you see a lot ofthese people.
He literally took the food,started drinking the hot
chocolate and went over and satsomewhere else and ate.
And there's these opportunitiesthose are some of the most
clear that we see all the timebut there's these small moments
(29:04):
that can make a big differencein the life of someone.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Yeah, it's been cool to see them show up for each
other.
They show up for their teammore.
Now they start figuring outways to serve their team in
creative ways that they didn'tbefore.
They find a way to startserving their clients in
creative ways.
Corey, you're talking about theairport building.
You know, working on theairport Remind me of one of our
(29:29):
favorite, shannon.
It was her first month starting.
So she's like what is this?
Like company has given me moneyto go find people to do nice
things.
For what is this?
So?
She and talk about how itengages the whole family.
She takes this money and she'sflying to Park City.
She's in Kansas and she'sflying to park city.
She's in kansas and she'scoming to park city.
(29:49):
And it was when southwest hadtheir debacle you know just all
the flights and and.
But she felt empathy for allthe southwest workers that were,
you know, under the gun,feeling pretty bad.
So she takes her money, shegoes and buys a bunch of gift
cards and she starts handingthem out to all the Southwest.
You know the gate agent, thebaggage guy, all these people
(30:13):
and her husband does the samething.
So they're together.
She engages her whole family.
She engages her husband, whoare now, because of this
philosophy and because of thisplatform, are going out and and
improving the lives of thesepeople.
Like what?
Like everyone's yelling at us.
You're giving us a gift card.
Yeah, because she says it sucksto get yelled at for something
(30:33):
that you have no control over.
Right Story after story afterstory.
We could go on forever, but I'msure I love them.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I love the stories.
They're so cool.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
The great thing is these stories away from the mic,
but these stories are allcontained and you can see them.
You know you've got your yourcompany feed that will show you
everything that's happeninginside of your own company, but
then you hit the toggle switchand it says community.
So now you're starting to seestories from all the different
(31:04):
companies that are part of thebuild and bless community, from
their team members, for their,their employees, their managers,
their founders, theirexecutives.
They're sharing these storiesand we actually have.
If we, you know, if we had avideo, we can show you on a map.
But there's a map where you cansee these things happening in
real time all over the world.
So you see this, it's almostlike a little light that comes
(31:27):
on and you can see the, the logoof, that of, or the face of
that person with theirassociated company, you know.
So you got this person over inkansas doing this and in socal,
and maybe over in thephilippines and down in texas.
So these, these things are justblinking in real time.
You can see these thingsbecause we grab, you know, ip
information and and data.
(31:47):
So it places it on a map so youcan get a general idea of where
these things are happening.
So you're, you're visualizingthe world.
You know the company's always.
We're in business because we'regoing to change the world,
especially a lot of techcompanies.
A lot of tech companies likewe're going to change the world
with this technology that wecreate.
We literally think that we canimprove, truly improve, not just
(32:08):
change the world.
What does that mean?
Change?
Is it good?
Change for good, change for bad?
We literally believe that wecan improve the world, one micro
interaction at a time, as thistakes place and it spawns out,
and that you can actuallyvisualize the effect.
We say how do you measureculture?
How do you visualize culture?
We're making it so that you canvisualize culture improving and
(32:32):
the hearts improving of yourteam and then their communities,
and then the effects of what ittakes place, of what takes
place beyond that, that's superexcited about it and I have to
tell you one of the coolestthings, as we're rolling this
out now to other companies thisone amazing individual.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
he drives from Logan to Salt Lake to his office and
you're going to go throughpeople outside of Utah.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
That's about an hour and a half hour and 45.
Yeah, there's some context.
It's a long drive.
I'll just say that.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
And he, he was getting his tires done, tires
fixed and someone came in andwas you know, I need help with
my car.
There was a front tire thatneeded to be replaced.
I think she went in and out ofthe store Like I don't have
money for this, I don't knowwhat to do.
As he got called up, he went upand he's like hey, can you tell
(33:28):
me what's going on over there?
And she doesn't have money topay for her tire, she just needs
one tire.
And she's on her way.
He's like can I take care ofthat?
And the manager just sat there.
He was, he was describing thislike wait what?
And he says we can do betterthan that too.
And so he discounted the priceand was able to let this person
pay.
(33:48):
And then he left.
He said I probably wouldn'thave even thought about that.
I probably just would havelooked at who's this crazy
person like pull it together.
You know what he says.
This literally has changed myoutlook on finding opportunities
, and it was small.
You know what he was able to do.
But now I'm like, oh my gosh,that's the coolest thing,
especially growing up on a farm.
You look at tires and tread.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I'm not crazy guy that will roll down my window
and say hey, your tires are low.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
But I was just so inspired by these other stories
now that are starting to come inand getting us thinking outside
of ourselves, cause I think oneof the greatest dichotomies in
life is the degree to which wethink about ourselves, the
unhappier we are.
But the more we think aboutothers, the second we think
about others and someone else.
Not only are they helped andblessed, but we are too.
(34:35):
How does that work?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Well, and there's a third wheel.
In both the stories in the bikeshop and the tire shop, not
only were the person who blessedand went out of their way
because they saw the opportunityand the person who blessed and
went out of their way becausethey saw the opportunity and the
person who received blessed,but the bike shop employee and
the tire shop employee probablyalso saw an opportunity to be
kinder that day and they weretouched because of the kindness
(35:01):
of someone else.
So it's not just a two-waything, I think, and you know,
like the butterfly effect.
You know, one of them probablywent and had more of an, a
penchant to go do something kindfor someone else because they
saw it, and then you repeat theaction you see yeah, and it's
not only internally, or not onlyexternally, but also internally
(35:23):
too.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Um, my father passed away in sept September and that
final week I was there with himand I was realizing.
I was looking at my calendarthat week and I was like I don't
know how I've got to be herewith my family, but I also have
all these things that I need todo at work.
And it wasn't just a text fromGreg, it was a text from four or
(35:45):
five other people on my team.
They're like hey, but it was atext from four or five other
people on my team.
They're like hey, you focus onyour family, we've got you.
And to be able to step away andtake that is one of the most
incredible things ever.
And those seven, eight daysthat I was with my dad and my
family were some that you can'tget back.
And as we talk about thesemicro moments this is what life
(36:06):
is built on are these smallthings that you remember?
I remember when I looked downat my phone and saw that text.
I remember how I felt when wesee this and really you think
about it we're all here for eachother to try to help each other
be just a little bit better,and isn't it a miracle that we
can get better?
in any way and what we're tryingto accomplish.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
So how does?
A listener access this if theywant to.
Is this a app?
Is it on the internet?
Is it both?
And how do they access it?
How do they get into your worldif they want to?
Speaker 4 (36:40):
Yeah, so build them.
Blessedcom is a place to signup.
We do all of the onboarding.
Is a place to sign up.
We do all of the onboarding.
Um, there's, there's.
Obviously, you know, there'sgotta be a desktop version where
people can access it on theircomputers.
Um, we have an iOS app, androidapp, um, but we do all of the
(37:03):
onboarding because we want tojust take that hassle out of it.
We also have um if, ifcompanies or people feel like
they need it, we have access toall kinds of training helping
them figure out how to set corevalues were really big and
important on having core valuesthat are, like Derek likes to
say, are the guardrails thatkeep us going in the direction
that we want to go, towards ourvision or or fulfilling our
(37:26):
mission.
Um, but yeah, they just justcontact us.
We do all all the onboardingand help that entire process.
Everybody on the team we train.
We have an entire curriculumthat's done by some really cool
um trainers.
I don't know if you guys knowLisa, valentin Clark and your
host, bonner, and Kirby Hayborn,who's the host of making good,
(37:48):
a really cool TV show, sharonPrabacher.
I mean really dynamic trainersthat will take you through how
to implement this and takepieces and every culture is
different.
We like to say kind of thefirst slide on our deck that
says Build and Bless exists tomake bad cultures good and good
good cultures better and tochange human nature, because we
(38:11):
don't ever go into any companyassuming that they have a bad
culture.
We just say you might have agreat culture but there might be
some things that we can add toit.
Or there could be a reallyterrible culture where people
are just jumping ship and wantto get out of there quickly.
Um, can we help fix that, youknow, if they have the desire to
fix that.
And so both with you know sometraining and some philosophy
(38:33):
around it.
And then implementing theplatform where there's this
return and report and people arehelping each other out.
But we're there the whole way.
People get an account manager.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Is that done live, or is it done via zoom or?
Speaker 4 (38:50):
both it can be.
It can be either or or both.
Okay, companies can choose.
Hey, we're good, we understandit enough, and maybe we're not
that big.
I mean, we've got 50 or ahundred people, we can do this
ourself.
Or maybe it's bigger.
Company says, hey, we'd reallylike you to come in and bring
some people and help train ourpeople and implement it and help
(39:10):
make sure everybody's dialed inand their profile is updated.
Because that's another bigportion of it's not just this
portion of going out into thecommunity and blessings.
There's a very internalbusiness portion of it where we
feel a strong desire to get toknow each of our team members
really well and make sure thateach manager and each director
knows their team really well,because in order to serve them
(39:33):
the best that they can be served, they have to know them.
And so we start by building outan interest for him.
So, like I know what dessert helikes, so I'm not sending him
chocolate chip cookies when he'sallergic to chocolate or
something he sends me RiceKrispie treats yeah exactly.
(39:55):
We do that with our clients aswell, where we want to get to
know them really well so thatyou know, if you have a birthday
, we want to send you a text, wewant to send you a gift to show
you that we care.
I mean, that's going full circleback to what Derek talked about
being noticed.
That's like Dale Carnegie 101,right, like the most, the most
innate desire that each of ushave as human beings is to is to
(40:15):
feel important, to feel likewe're, we matter, that we're
noticed, and most people, whenthey have a birthday, come
around or an anniversary or somebig event in their life, they
get a text from maybe their mom,maybe their wife or their
husband, but sometimes theirkids will forget them.
I mean, it's the amount ofpeople that, at the end of the
(40:38):
day, remember important thingsand make people feel special.
The amount of people that reachout to help people when they
don't necessarily need somethingin return is very small, and so
that's the other portion of itis that we want to try to build
internally a culture of thinkingabout the other people, making
sure that they feel important,making sure that they feel
(41:00):
recognized, and so we've builtthat into the platform as well.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
That's killer yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
One of the coolest things.
I was thinking about this, uh,claude Silver, who's the chief
heart officer for VaynerMedia.
I had the opportunity to listento her speak up in park city a
few years ago and and the wordsshe said on a slide in in the
past, jobs were about muscle andwork right, jobs are about
muscle.
Um, today they're brains andtomorrow they'll be about heart,
(41:27):
and tomorrow is here.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Oh, I like that.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
And it's so true to see people want, now more than
ever, purpose in what they'redoing and that I'm doing an
important work that actuallymatters and makes a difference,
and I think every one of us, nomatter where we are, where we
sit in any organization that'sthe beauty of it you can make a
difference right.
(41:51):
Small and simple thingsmultiplied by time, equal the
greatest results.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
I love that.
Very quotable, derek, veryquotable.
Well, that's awesome.
I feel like anybody who has acompany that listens to this
ought to look into this.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Well, I'm going to.
It's awesome for our companyfor sure, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
I just think it's cool, Cause everybody is
familiar with the big checkscenario you know, and you feel
kind of disconnected from thatif it's not your thing.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Yeah, yeah, we've had that for years and we have
multiple different offices andin construction then you're
broken apart again, so you haveoffices in different locations,
kind of have subcultures.
Then you have projects wherepeople are on projects, so we
have about 2,000 employees, butthose 2,000 employees are spread
(42:42):
over everywhere, right, and soit's hard to get a feeling of
unity, even when we're doing acharitable donation or a
charitable cause or giving timeto charity, right.
So we typically have thedifferent businesses and people
have their own charities that wesupport, yeah, and then we do
(43:02):
something globally as a company.
But this is way more to theheart of the matter.
I mean it.
It just makes a lot of a lot ofsense to me.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
And cool that you guys have given it a system that
makes it easy, that you don'thave to.
You know you have to thinkabout it, but once you plug into
the system it kind of snowballs.
Speaker 4 (43:21):
And you get.
You get to draw upon theingenuity and the inspiration of
each individual person.
So imagine, as you're lookingthrough your coming, you see, uh
, you know, a person at office.
10, you know whatever it is,you know, you know that happens
as you grow.
It's like there's more and moreofficers, more and more places,
(43:43):
and you're only one person, soyou get.
But imagine you're seeing thiscome in and and so and so did
this thing, and you're, you keyinto it and you you're able to
comment on it and say, oh mygosh, great job, and and you can
encourage that behavior.
And they start to do thatpeer-to-peer.
Where they're, they're just,they're building their own
(44:04):
positive communities everywherethat they are and it's
contagious.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
That was the thing for us too, and when we talked
about when the genesis of thisstarted, I literally think about
every one of our team membersin their home, wherever they're
at.
How can they feel what we havewhen they're not here?
And this became that was kindof the question we asked.
Is I get to see Greg all thetime, which is awesome.
(44:31):
A lot of our team members don'tget to see and experience what
I do.
How can we have something wherewe can all share, all celebrate
, all shine a light on theamazing things that are
happening?
So kind of that.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Well, the way that you guys have automated it and
it's happening essentiallyorganically and people can see
it happening.
The only way I could do thattoday is, let's say, like our
Midwest team puts in a handicapramp for someone, which is
something they've done a coupleof times Just awesome, being
nice to someone in the community, right, great, great.
(45:08):
The only way I the rest of myassociates know that in any
other office is that we putsomething together and we post
it on our intranet or we post itsocially or and then times that
by however many offices andgroups.
It's basically an impossibletask to proactively try to stay
on top of all the great thingspeople are doing, whether that
be charity or just doing anamazing job at work, or just
(45:30):
going the extra mile you name itwinning a new customer.
It's really hard at scale tohave that communicated in any
good economical way.
So, in a real way, this isenormous um communication tool.
Speaker 4 (45:49):
Yeah, it's really cool we're actually taking all
those experiences too, and atthe end of the year we roll them
up almost as like a yearbook,like here's all these things
where.
So you're documenting.
Not only are you, are youinspiring and growing and
building people, honestly you're, you're making better people at
every single turn, but at theend of the day, you're able to
document.
(46:10):
You know so, when Big D, it'sall said and done, I mean
there's going to be lots ofevidence of the fruit of the
work, but to have thatdocumented somewhere, you're
like, oh my gosh, I rememberwhen so-and-so did that.
I remember when so-and-so didthat.
I remember when that person'slife was changed.
I remember when so-and-so didthat.
(46:33):
I remember when that person'slife was changed.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
I remember that person's life was saved because
somebody did such and such likeso powerful to have that
documentation.
And we started to reallyfocusing on mental health a
couple of years ago which thisis part and parcel to that in my
mind and it made this enormousdifference for us to just be
okay talking about it, talkabout it, talking about ways to
deal with it, talking about waysto not deal with it, and I
think this would go hand in handwith that.
(46:56):
Right, you talked about, Ithink, muscle, mind and heart,
and that's a heart thing.
You've got to be prettyvulnerable and pretty open to
say, hey, I'm having some mentalhealth issues.
More people are than you mightthink pretty vulnerable and
pretty open to say, hey, I'mhaving some mental health issues
.
Yeah, um, more people are thanyou might think, and that's what
we're realizing in today'ssociety, right, but this is a
wonderful way for people to openup to each other, to be more
(47:18):
kind, to be more open.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
So killer job guys.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
It's a really good idea.
Thank you so much Coming fromthese guys, I don't think I'm
surprised.
No, how long has the this beenavailable to other companies
besides your own?
Speaker 4 (47:35):
January 1st of this year.
Okay, We've we've used itourselves internally for, um,
you know, two to three years andit got to the point where both
small and large companies wereasking us hey, can we use that?
I?
Speaker 3 (47:50):
have to tell you.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
We're doing this internally, so we worked really
hard.
We've developed other platformsand applications before, but
this is the one we're mostpassionate about, so it's sort
of an organic.
You know one of thosesituations where a really good
product comes out of almost, youknow, not expected.
(48:12):
I mean, slack came out of acompany that was doing like
video game design and all thesethings, and so it's really just
been sort of a demand thingwhere, like man, we'd love to
implement that in our company.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
One of our clients didn't show up for a regular
scheduled meeting and one of ourteam members sent them a
spoonful of comfort.
It showed up on their frontdoorstep Next thing.
She's like who are you guys,Can you?
Speaker 4 (48:37):
teach me how to do this.
I shined you at a meeting andyou and you send me a gift.
What?
Speaker 3 (48:43):
That's great, it doesn't happen.
So that's where it kind ofstarted to we're what?
That's great, it doesn't happen.
So that's where it kind ofstarted too.
We're like can we use this?
Can you guys show us how to dothis?
Maybe we're onto something.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
You're definitely onto something I'm always
preaching that if you want aloyal client, then you have to
do something more than expected.
Right?
And the construction industrysaid look, team on time, on
budget, high quality and safe.
Those aren't easy, but they'reprerequisites.
That's what they pay us to do.
(49:15):
They pay us to do those things.
You have to go above and beyondand touch their heart.
Right, you actually care, yougot to care and you've got to
make them feel like.
I didn't expect that I like touse the word surprise, surprise
and delight.
Right, that I like to use theword surprise, surprise and
delight.
Right?
So this is a way to make that apart of your culture.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Right?
That's cool, that's right.
Yeah, very cool, super excited.
Well, in a couple of years, um,maybe we need to have you guys
back on and talk about the lasttwo years of the explosive
growth of build than bless,because I think it's going to be
a cool story I think thefunnest thing to you know to
bring this, bring this backaround teaching our kids to be
(49:54):
outward minded, right?
Speaker 3 (49:57):
we have numerous stories of one of our team
members.
I can still hear it in my she'slike their, their child saw a
need, just like mommy.
We need to help because of this, right, and that's what.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
That's what's so incredible about these You're
creating awareness not just foryour employees, but with their
whole family.
Speaker 4 (50:15):
Their generations.
Yeah, it is the most excitingthing.
We have so many mothers.
You know that, that work andbecause you know of the remote
nature not every job can beremote, but that work, and
because you know of the remotenature and not every job can be
remote but some aspects are, andand so we've created this way
that that these mother, you know, with young kids, can still
(50:36):
work and and now they sharethese stories and they say, um,
my kids don't know any differentthan to live this philosophy.
So everywhere they go they'relike who can we, who can we
build them?
Bless mommy.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
That's great, it's amazing, so cool.
I'm a firm believer that youcan't be a gentleman if you're
not situationally aware.
Yeah, because that's, to me,where all of the gentlemanly
acts come from.
When you, when you look outsideyourself and see the needs of
others, that's what makes you agentleman.
And unless you're aware ofthose around you which is what
(51:13):
this is promoting andencouraging you can't.
Speaker 3 (51:17):
You can't be a gentleman because you're
inwardly focused, so great job,yeah, and I think the true test
of character right Is to becompassionate at every step,
right.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
That's awesome.
So I'm going to ask you again,Derek, because at the end of
every podcast we ask what youthink it means to be a gentleman
.
I know you've answered this,but it's been a couple of years,
so maybe it's changed, and thenwe'll let Greg answer that
question.
Speaker 3 (51:44):
I think I would say now is to be outward minded,
right and always look for othersand how you can help, because
there are always needs and whenyou can lift someone up, make
their day a little bit better,even with a smile.
These small acts and microinteractions make a big
difference in being seen.
Speaker 4 (52:06):
Yeah, oh man.
Speaker 3 (52:12):
I better answer this right.
Speaker 4 (52:13):
So when my wife listens, I'm trying to think of
what she would say.
I just I know how I feel andand for me, being a gentleman is
is um, having respect for thosearound you, specifically your
wife, your kids, looking for?
(52:35):
We tell our kids every timethey go to a dance, we say, find
the loneliest person in theroom and go, ask them to dance.
So, situationally aware, beingempathetic this is at the core
of all this, the things thatyou're talking about.
But being empathetic andplacing yourself in the
situation of others.
I know this.
(52:56):
I don't think this is areligious type podcast, but it's
.
You know, there's a scripturethat I love where it talks about
pure religion and undefiledbefore God is to visit the
fatherless and the widows.
And it's not like, why werethose?
Why is the fatherless and thewidows?
And it's not like, why werethose?
Why is the fatherless and thewidows chosen?
It's not just them that need.
They were chosen as arepresentation and in our world
(53:17):
today, we hear a lot aboutreligion, and religion just
broken down in the Latin asreligare, which means to rebind
or to reconnect, and I thinkthat is, empathetically, at the
core of all this is that you'reable to go and reconnect and
help bring things together andto be empathetic, reconnect with
(53:43):
humanity and be situationallyaware that you're able to,
everywhere you go, be a lightand be someone that leaves
everything that you touch betterthan you found it.
That that, to me, is the coreof of being a gentleman Good job
.
Speaker 2 (54:03):
I like it, I love it.
Thanks, gentlemen.
Okay, so build been blesscom Ifyou're interested in the
platform, which you ought to beif you own a company.
Also, you guys have a podcastfor the lemonade stand.
They have some amazing guestson there.
You want to do a quick plug foryour podcast?
Speaker 3 (54:23):
Go ahead.
Lemonade stand stories and wetalked to a lot of people about
turning life's lemons intolemonade and working on a Build
Then Bless podcast too.
Speaker 2 (54:34):
So stay tuned.
Hey cool, that's awesome.
So go check them out.
Drop them a rating and a reviewif you like it.
Do the same for us.
That'd be awesome, corey, and Iwould appreciate that.
That gets us in front of morepeople, more eyeballs, and gets
messages like Greg's and Derek'sout to the world.
So thanks so much for joiningus guys.
We really appreciate your time.
(54:55):
Thanks for joining us on thepodcast today and investing your
time with us.
I'm Kirk Chug and I'm CoreyMoore.
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm.
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