When Nicole de Lara Puente, CEO of the Live Like Bella Childhood Cancer Foundation, joined our show, she brought more than her story; she brought the enduring spirit of Bella, a young girl whose courage in the face of cancer sparked a global crusade. Nicole's transition from various leadership roles in major media outlets across Europe and Latin America to leading an organization that has raised over $35 million for childhood cancer research is a poignant reminder of the impact one life can have. This episode is a tribute to the unyielding support of communities and the transformative power of storytelling in the quest to provide hope to families grappling with this harrowing diagnosis.
In our heartfelt discussion, we confront the stark realities that children with cancer and their families must endure, emphasizing the necessity for research tailored to their unique needs. The Live Like Bella foundation's efforts have been instrumental in propelling forward clinical trials and research funding in Florida, highlighting a pressing issue: the critical lack of advanced treatment options for our youngest warriors. Nicole's call to action is not just a plea but a rallying cry for us all to join forces in the battle against pediatric cancer.
We also peel back the curtain on the intricacies of nonprofit fundraising, where Nicole sheds light on the importance of diversifying income streams and the profound influence of donor engagement. This episode is an invaluable resource for anyone involved in philanthropy, offering strategic advice on sustaining charitable efforts and the significance of fostering connections beyond the dollars raised. Nicole's unwavering dedication to the cause and her insights on rallying community support make this conversation a masterclass in driving change for a deeply personal mission.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Collin (00:09):
Well, welcome back to the Nonprofit Renaissance, where
we help nonprofit leaders gofurther and grow faster.
We've got a great one for youtoday.
Today's episode is coming allthe way to you from Miami,
Florida, where H is joined by.
Coming all the way to you fromMiami Florida, where H is joined
by Nicole de Lara Puenta, avisionary leader in the fight
(00:31):
against childhood cancer.
As a CEO of Live Like BellaChildhood Cancer Foundation,
Nicole has been instrumental inspearheading initiatives that
have mobilized over $35 millionfor research.
She's impacted countless livesacross the globe.
So stay tuned as we dive intoNicole's inspiring journey and
her groundbreaking work and herpassion for making a difference
in the lives of children who arebattling cancer.
(00:54):
So, without further ado, let'sgo and let's grow.
Heredes (00:58):
We're talking to Nicole , and it's Nicole De Lara Puente
.
Did I get that right?
You got it perfect, okay, causehow did you pronounce my name
earlier, Nicole?
Nicole De Lara Puente (01:06):
Just H, I didn't even try because you
said you were getting butcheredtoo much.
I wasn't going to be like thatgirl Smart smart C-E-D-O
Director officer leader.
Heredes (01:20):
The one CEO at Live Like Bella, did I get that right
?
Yeah, yes, tell us about Live.
Like Bella, I'm excited to talkabout calling our host.
I already told our listeners alittle bit.
A highly emotional, fulfillingfoundation, and organization.
Nicole De Lara Puente (01:42):
Tell us a little bit of the history and
how you got involved.
So let me tell you about Bellafirst, because this is how this
all began.
So Bella was a little girl likeany other little girl, and she
was four years old and she wasdiagnosed with a childhood
cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma.
She was given just a few weeks,a few months, to live, but the
(02:04):
author of life had another plan,because Bella battled cancer
for six years and passed away inMay of 2013 when she was just
10 years old.
In that time, her family Ididn't have the privilege of
meeting Bella, but her family,who now volunteers for the
foundation, has shared so manystories.
(02:25):
Her parents and her familyasked for prayer.
That's really all they wanted.
And her story.
I followed her story.
I would have never dreamt thatGod would put me here today, but
they just asked for prayer.
I think they had like a website.
It was even like Pray for Bellaand the community in South
Florida came together.
(02:46):
There's always a child in acommunity, whether you're in
Wisconsin, in Alaska, wherever,there's always a child that
somebody's praying for.
But Bella she was very specialand during her battle she was in
Houston at MD Anderson.
Actually, she had an 18 hoursurgery.
They really did comb the earthfor treatment for her, and her
(03:07):
mom posted on Facebook that day.
You know Bella just finishedher surgery, she's doing well,
she's in recovery.
Please pray for her and honorher today by doing the things
she loves Take a bubble bath,sing a song, say a prayer, show
compassion.
And she made a list of thingsthat Bella loved to do and at
the end of the post she wroteyou hashtag live like Bella.
(03:31):
So that hashtag was born thatday and fast forward a few
months later that Bella went toheaven way too soon.
The Miami Heat was playing in anNBA conference final.
Lebron James and Dwayne Wadewere part of the Heat at that
time and a lot of people hadbeen praying for her.
They had a lot of followers onTwitter, on Instagram, on
Facebook, and they asked theMiami Heat to write hashtag
(03:54):
LiveLikeBella on their shoes andthey did.
Lebron James did it first andthen the whole team did it and
Bella had passed.
That morning and that nightthey were getting calls turn on
the TV, turn on the game, turnon the game.
And they had just lost theirdaughter.
They were not looking to watcha basketball game and they said
turn on the game.
And they did and there was aMiami Heat, all with Live Like
(04:17):
Bella on their shoes, and it'son that day that her story went
viral around the world.
The live like bella childhoodcancer foundation was born
shortly thereafter wow that's alittle story.
Heredes (04:31):
I love that I love, I love hearing the one, the power
of the story and, even throughthat pain, you know how god used
that and how the influence atthe time and the energy of the
time was channeled for, andwe're looking at what, 10 years
now, has it been?
it'll be 11 in may, 11, 11.
So it's been, you know, over adecade and her legacy lives in
(04:51):
the power of now.
One of the reasons we'retalking to you, nicole, is
jumping into a lot of thefoundations we serve and the
organization.
One of the things I love themost about your foundation was
the listing of some of thechildren and the kids and you
say who we work for and they'rekind of on the website and
they're front and center withwhat they're fighting with, what
(05:12):
the what the battle is nowcancer.
It's an, it's an emotional,it's a deeply emotional right to
um to battle.
Number one what.
What motivates you?
How did you?
You've heard the story.
It's more now than just whethera viral marketing campaign or
something that caught on, thelegacy's, lived on, it's grown
into serving and rescuing andpartnering and battling with
(05:36):
tons more kids.
What motivates you?
What got you in the game?
Why are you here?
Why are you passionate aboutthis and talking to me about
this today?
Nicole De Lara Puente (05:44):
You know, look my background, my degrees
in journalism and publicrelations.
I had worked my entire careerin television and in government.
I worked for MTV, for SonyPictures.
I had like cool, fun, like whenyou're at a cocktail party and
you tell people you work at MTV.
It was like that's so cool.
Heredes (05:59):
So same thing.
Right, you just jumped over tothe same thing.
Well, you know.
So here's what happened.
Nicole De Lara Puente (06:03):
So here's what happened.
I have two healthy daughters andI've always believed that to
those of us who much is given,much is expected.
And when my second daughter wasborn, I was on maternity leave
and I had been traveling a lotfor work and I wanted to stay
home.
And I used to do not stay homebut I wanted to stay in Miami
(06:25):
and I was really involved in thecommunity as a volunteer.
But it would have neveroccurred to me to look at
working in a nonprofit as acareer.
But I can tell you from thebottom of my heart, God tapped
me on the shoulder because Ireally shouldn't be here right
now.
I just listened I know itsounds a little bit cheesy, but
there was a little bit of acalling and I left the corporate
(06:45):
world.
I was very brave to do, becausethe corporate world is a lot
more lucrative than being anonprofit.
But I followed my heart.
I left corporate America towork for a big health system in
South Florida on the fundraisingside and in pediatrics, just
because that was a door that wasopened.
Fast forward, four years laterof a lot of learning.
I meet Bella's parents At thispoint.
(07:08):
Bella had passed, but I was oneof the ones who followed her
story.
I would have never known thatour paths would cross again and
we meet and it really can onlybe explained by God.
So Bella was born and there waslow oxygen during her birth so
she had a lot of developmentaldelays.
(07:29):
Bella, you know, she passed at10 and she had never learned how
to read.
She was very, very innocentthat if you talk to her parents
in her early years they sufferedso much seeing their daughter
get made fun of.
You know kids aren't always sopatient.
You know it took her a littlelonger to understand the rules
she would get made fun of.
You know kids aren't always sopatient.
You know it took her a littlelonger to understand the rules
she would get made fun of atparties.
And because God does this thing, when she was diagnosed with
(07:51):
cancer, you know, a few yearslater they say it was the
greatest gift.
Because she never reallyunderstood.
Bella never asked am I going todie?
Is this going to hurt?
You know, when Bella wasdiagnosed with cancer, if she
heard somebody else had cancershe'd be like I have cancer too.
She was almost.
She was so innocent.
And her father was raisedCatholic and her mother was
(08:15):
raised Jewish, but neither oneof them was very religious.
They didn't have.
They had faith, but theyweren't necessarily practicing
in either of their religions.
Their house was not a homefilled with a crucifix or saints
or the Virgin Mother.
And Bella, in her sleep, wouldwake up and she was talking
about mommy church and theydidn't know what she was saying
(08:36):
and she was like mommy churchcarries me and her parents.
She slept in their room becausewhen she was sick, you know,
they had set up her bed and theydidn't know what on earth, like
what was she talking about?
Yeah.
And Catholics believe that theVirgin Mother has made
appearances on earth, you know,over the years.
And there's the Our Lady ofGuadalupe, our Lady, you know.
(08:58):
I'm sure in Brazil there's a.
Heredes (08:59):
Oh tons, who is it in Brazil?
You've got to tell me, nossaSenhora da Aparecida.
Who is it in Brazil, nossaSenhora da Aparecida?
See, there you go, there you go, yes.
Nicole De Lara Puente (09:06):
So by some process of elimination,
they figured out that Bella wasreferring to the Virgin Mary and
she called her Mommy Church,which was kind of crazy because
they had never talked to herabout that.
And by process of elimination,they showed her different
depictions of Virgin Mother andthere was Our Lady of Lourdes,
(09:28):
our Lady of Fatima, and whenthey showed her a picture of the
Our Lady of Guadalupe, she saidthat's Mommy Church, wow.
And they later looked up thefeast day of Our Lady of
Guadalupe, which is December12th, and that was Bella's
birthday.
She was born on December 12th.
So there was a family that hadfaith, but not necessarily
(09:51):
practicing, and it changed theway that they lived their lives.
When this started to happen,the family saw it as a series of
miracles that God was verypresent in their home and in
Bella's heart and in Bella'slife.
So faith and prayer became avery, very important part of
their day-to-day.
(10:11):
Because when you have a childwith cancer, one of two things
can happen you can lose yourfaith or you can strengthen it.
And it's very easy to lose yourfaith.
When you see a child suffering.
You ask where is God in this?
But when you find your faith,like they did they really.
It was able to bring themtogether as a family, to give
them a lot of hope and peace,not free of pain, but full of
(10:33):
faith, which is not the samething, wow.
Heredes (10:36):
What a connection.
What a connection there on thatOne, the specificity of that
right and helping challengetheir faith.
It is right and helpingchallenge their faith.
It is right, miraculous, kindof like God-sized level stuff
which sometimes it's hard tocomprehend in our rational
day-to-day lives, and how it gotyour attention and grabbed your
heart.
Nicole De Lara Puente (10:56):
Well, it grabbed my attention and my
heart because I opened my heart,I guess.
And while I was working withthe healthcare system, we opened
a cancer center and Bella'sfamily made a donation to the
cancer center.
And that's where we met andfast forward.
We were all having a cup ofcoffee one day and we talked
(11:16):
about what are we doing forchildren with cancer in the
state of Florida specifically.
It was really just a chat, kindof like our chat now.
There was no real agenda, wewere just talking and long story
longer, like they say.
You know her family's like look, we've been running this as
volunteers in our kitchencounter and it's growing little
by little and we don't know whatto do.
(11:41):
And out of my mouth exit thewords.
I don't know why.
I said we should think aboutworking together.
I kind of meant like, let mehelp out, what can I do?
And your father tells me thinkabout it.
I've thought about it.
You're just saying it out loudand I couldn't tell you H?
I don't know what happened thatday, but a conversation started
and you know, here we are sevenyears later and I opened my
(12:04):
heart to it and I asked them allthe time I'm like guys, why did
you pick me?
And they point to the sky andthey're like I didn't.
And that was really a Bellamoment.
And so I took the risk and Ifollowed my heart and everybody
told me I was crazy, which I getcalled crazy often Because you
know why would you want to dothis?
You know, you worked incorporate America, traveled the
world, worked for MTV.
Heredes (12:25):
I got the book.
If you don't have it, is thebook out yet I think, from
cocktail parties to cancer,cuban, crazy, I wrote it.
I wrote it.
It's a CCC, okay, perfect, Ifigured, I figured, I figured.
Nicole De Lara Puente (12:36):
I figured and I don't know, you know?
And people told me like you'recrazy, what is so sad?
And I said you know what's sosad is doing nothing.
I think that's what's very,very sad, and the real death is
not the loss of life.
The real death is a loss offaith.
That's good and I really youknow I opened my heart and here
(12:59):
we are and live like Bella Todayis serving families in 49
states and in 37 countries,something that started in the
kitchen counter.
Heredes (13:05):
Wow, that's amazing.
And tell me, I want to get intoa little bit of leadership and
story.
We're going to hop back andforth.
It's been seven years in thisrole.
Oh, rainbows and skittles, I'msure it's all been easy.
You jumped into millions ofdollars and advocacy.
Exactly no, yeah, for sure.
You jumped into millions ofdollars and advocacy.
Exactly no.
Never liked that, right.
No, give us a journey a littlebit.
You don't have to name anynames, but if you'd like to, no,
(13:27):
but give us the journey.
Some leadership transitions,difficulty stepping into a
beautiful organization like this, but it's filled with people
and challenges and you knowhow's it been, how's the
leadership journey been.
Nicole De Lara Puente (13:40):
So Live Like Bella.
I gotta rewind a little bit.
Live Like Bella today doesthree things, or has three lines
of service, for lack of abetter term.
The first one is helping tofund research in childhood
cancer.
So Live Like Bella, under myleadership, has done advocacy in
the state of Florida and aroundthe country, and at the moment
(14:01):
the Live Like Bella initiativeis funding 66 clinical trials at
10 different institutions inFlorida.
So, we can talk more about that.
That's the nerdy research sideof me.
My heart is there.
Heredes (14:11):
We have many of those listeners, yes, here.
Nicole De Lara Puente (14:13):
So I'll go back to that.
But there's the researchcomponent and there's very, very
little research that's beendone in childhood cancer.
Unfortunately, 80% of childrenwho present with cancer are
stage four.
Children have the physiologicaldisadvantage that they're
growing.
You know, if you have afour-year-old with a headache,
you think they're spending toomuch time on the iPad.
Or you know, if a child has legpain, you're like man too much
(14:35):
soccer practice.
You don't think.
You know they're not gettingscreened like us as adults.
You know, as a woman, you knowyou get a mammogram.
I have a friend who's apediatrician that says sometimes
being a pediatrician is likebeing a veterinarian the patient
can't tell you what's going on.
Heredes (14:49):
Well, being a parent sometimes feels like that too.
Yeah, well, you know.
Yes, that too.
Nicole De Lara Puente (14:58):
So there, you know, there just hasn't
been funding invested.
I think you know you don't wantto run a clinical trial with,
you know, a bunch of stage four12-year-olds.
Your drugs are not going to getapproved, you know.
So the very little that thereis to offer children are
typically adult drugs.
And you know you have fivechildren because you're crazy.
Heredes (15:17):
That's another podcast and I'm sure that when they were
, little, you don't give anadult Tylenol to a child you
want.
Nicole De Lara Puente (15:22):
You know children's Tylenol doesn't exist
in the childhood cancer space,so that's very important for us
to have a seat at the table.
Heredes (15:29):
So the treatment for kids, at the moment it don't
exist, in the sense there's notenough quantity, there's not
enough research, or why.
So if my child God forbid like,are they just being, are they
being experimented on at thiscase, or how would you you know,
I'm not the expert there howdoes that work?
Because, just like there's kidsTylenol now I can now opt for
that.
Good, bad, I'm not sure.
(15:50):
But for treatment is it juststill not advanced as it should
be?
Nicole De Lara Puente (15:55):
It is absolutely not advanced as it
should be.
In the last 30 years there havebeen hundreds of drugs
developed for adults, but maybeonly two or three for children,
and a lot of the adult drugsthat you use on children really
has very, very scary sideeffects.
You know their organs are stilldeveloping, they're still
growing and you know a goodamount of children who receive
(16:16):
treatment experience long-termeffects from the medication.
But, like I said, there hasn'tbeen drug development there.
When you hear the most commoncancers that most of us have
heard of, it was leukemialymphoma, but there's
rhabdomyosarcoma, dipg, atrt,there's dozens of cancers and
(16:38):
there really just have not beendevelopment.
There's no money in it.
If this podcast was about let'sopen a pharmaceutical company,
I promise you, you know, ifyou're looking to make money and
it's not just that right, it'snot just pharma.
Heredes (16:51):
We'll be right back after sponsors.
Oh yeah, I'm kidding, we're not.
Listen, we'll take the sponsorsupport.
Nicole De Lara Puente (16:58):
But anyway, there just haven't been
development.
I'm particularly passionateabout that.
I've heard from researchersaround the country that there's
never been funds allocatedspecifically for childhood
cancer research.
There's families that areresearchers that have applied
for funds and been denied overand over because they're picking
up scraps of funding left overfrom adult cancers and although
(17:19):
the cases of childhood cancerare not as large as they are in
adults, there's 43 familiesevery day who hear the words
your child has cancer.
43 families, if we heard.
You know that's what.
Two or three classrooms full ofchildren.
If we knew every day that therewas 43 children diagnosed with
cancer.
(17:40):
And if you you know, when youtalk about research, sometimes I
always tell people let's notjust talk about the number of
cases, let's talk about thenumber of years of life lost,
and when you have thatconversation you look at it a
little bit differently.
Heredes (17:52):
And those are those that get diagnosed and know.
Nicole De Lara Puente (17:54):
Well, that's the thing it just takes,
you know.
Think about it.
I don't know when the last timeyou tried to make a doctor's
appointment, but if you have aheadache, it's going to be a
minute before you go see aneurologist and then, when
you're like you know what itshould probably get looked at.
Kids are not being wheeled intothe MRI real quick.
They're looking at other thingsfirst and kids have the
physiological disadvantage.
If I introduce you to my11-year-old today and you see
(18:15):
her in in a year, what's thefirst thing you're going to tell
me oh my God, she's gotten whatshe's gotten so big, so she's
growing and the cancer cells aregrowing rapidly right along
with them.
And so that's why, by the timeyou know they're diagnosed, and
you wait two months for yourappointment with your
pediatrician and another monthhere, in six months the growth
of a child is, you know, a lotquicker than in ours.
So I say that it's very tragic,but we really are working
(18:39):
diligently at the foundation tomake sure that we have a seat at
the table and are knocking onthe right doors to say let's
talk about this and what are wegoing to do.
So that's the first line, Iwould say, of service.
Of the three, the second one,which is, I guess, our bread and
butter, is when a child isdiagnosed with cancer, a family
very rapidly finds themselves ina difficult financial situation
(18:59):
.
If there's two parents in thehome, typically one has to stop
working.
Wow, you can't drop off yourdaughter at the hospital for
chemo, go to the office and comeback so very quickly.
A family who had no problembuying groceries has a problem
buying groceries.
Heredes (19:12):
It changes overnight, yeah.
Nicole De Lara Puente (19:14):
So Live, like Bella, steps in and helps
families while their childrenare being treated at any
hospital in the world, helpsfamilies while their children
are being treated at anyhospital in the world to help
pay for rents, mortgageutilities, transportation to and
from the hospital, etc.
It's a very simple process.
The foundation works directlywith the hospitals and social
workers.
Because we got to move quickly.
It's not you know, these aren'temergency services almost to
(19:37):
jump in.
So that's where we carry thelargest, you know, largest
caseload and amount of work thatthe foundation does is in what
we call in-treatment support.
And then the third of the threelines of service is we help
families that God forbid theirchild dies.
We help take care of theexpenses to be able to honor
them in their funeral burialheadstones.
And I can assure you nobody hasprepared or budgeted to send
(20:00):
the child to heaven.
It's very, very expensive andI'll assure you nobody has
prepared or budgeted to send thechild to heaven.
No, it's very, very expensiveand I'll tell you, although you
may be like man, that's thesaddest part of it, I have to
tell you may sound weird to say,but it's probably the most
privileged part is to be with afamily at that moment.
Heredes (20:16):
Really Tell me more.
Yeah.
Nicole De Lara Puente (20:19):
You don't know this, but I may get
emotional.
Oh no, no, really, tell me more.
Heredes (20:21):
Yeah, you don't know this, but I may get emotional.
Oh no, no, I'm here.
I got five boys that I'm likeoh my, you know.
Nicole De Lara Puente (20:25):
look, there's a little boy whose name
was Ben.
He died on November 11th.
I'll never forget Ben.
He had a very aggressive braintumor called DIPG and he battled
for 22 months, which, with thattype of tumor, there's no
recorded survivors and typicallychildren pass in nine months.
(20:46):
But I fell in love with Ben,like you fall in love with so
many of these kids.
And towards the end, his mom.
He was in hospice already andhis mom asked me to come and see
him.
And I've been to funerals ofchildren, which I promise you
you cannot unsee, but with Ben.
I was asked to sit with him inhospice and I remember talking
(21:10):
to Bella's father at the timeand I said you know, gabby has
asked me to come be with Ben.
And he goes.
Look, I can't tell you to gobecause, god forbid, ben passes
while you're there.
I promise you you'll never bethe same.
And he said but I'll tell youthis, if they've asked you to be
there, that is the mostintimate moment for a family.
So I went and there's somelevel of privilege to be there.
(21:36):
That's where your faith getstested right To be there.
That's where your faith getstested, right, because you're
like where's God here and he'sready to receive Ben, and we
listened to music and we satwith his brother and I'll never
forget that moment and I cantell you there was a privilege
to be with somebody at the endof life, to witness that right.
(21:58):
To witness that and when youwere asking me earlier about,
you know what motivates you, whydo you do this, and that's what
puts a fire in your belly.
You know I get a fire in mybelly when I see a researcher in
a lab, you know, makingprogress.
I get a fire in my belly when Isee a family who hasn't been
evicted from their home becausewe were able to help, and I feel
a huge responsibility when yousay you know what this child
(22:21):
shouldn't have passed.
We got to do better.
You know, and I feel it as aCEO Oftentimes, as you continue
to grow, you know you may seethese cases like in a quarterly
report, not us, and I'll neverwork that way.
I'll never operate that way.
You were saying earlier abouton our website how it says who
do we work for?
And I tell my team I'm like youdon't work for me and I don't
(22:41):
work for the board, we work forthese families and whatever
decision we make here, you knowfinancially, emotionally,
strategically, whatever it is,you got to remember who your
boss is and it ain't me.
So being on the front lines Ithink for me has been a huge
motivation and staying missiondriven A lot of times when you
work in, you know in big giantnonprofits you can get a little
(23:05):
distant from the mission.
You stop necessarily seeing thepeople you serve.
You know because you get into acorporate space, right, you
have to run a nonprofit the sameway you run a business in order
for it to be successful.
But when you forget what you'redoing and why you're sitting
there, I couldn't do it.
I couldn't do it.
And when I look at you know,growing our team and hiring
(23:26):
folks, the number one thing Ilook for is somebody who's
passionate.
You know if you need anattorney, you need somebody who
knows the law.
If you need an accountant, youneed to know somebody who knows
accounting.
But when you're building afoundation that there's so many
facets.
What I really look for is goodpeople, people who have faith,
who have passion, who I canteach you how to put together a
marketing plan.
We can figure out how to puttogether a budget, but if you
(23:49):
don't care about this, not theright person to be on the team.
Heredes (23:53):
That's gold.
We can wrap it up right there,guys, guys and here.
But, nicole, thank you forsharing that.
You know when, when we gotintroduced to talk and to meet
today and to and to highlightyou know, live like bell and
your foundation, um, therecommendation was this
incredible, uh, incredibly wellorganized, well run and involved
(24:13):
those are kind of the wordslike.
So you have to talk to themthat's a good reputation,
incredible incredible.
Usually you get oh cool, or theythis, or like a statistic or
something that it's important toright.
At the end of the day, we'retrying to get results and we're
trying to improve the researchor the advocacy, but when it's
like, hey, the reputation isinvolved, well run, you know and
(24:34):
I can tell why.
So I appreciate your years ofservice there and the years to
come.
Tell me about partnerships.
Tell me about some of thethings you've done, some of the
challenges ahead.
I'm assuming corporate partnersare important.
Health partners are important.
What are their roles?
What are the foundation'sefforts and how can we bridge
the gap there?
Nicole De Lara Puente (25:01):
You know anybody who who's worked in a
nonprofit can tell you thatraising money is is hard, right
and keeping your revenue sourcesdiversified.
I think is one of the biggestchallenges.
A lot of times for startupnonprofits you rely a lot on
events right, Especially in bigcities like Miami.
There's a gala every weekend,there's a 5K every weekend,
there's a golf tournament,there's a fishing tournament,
(25:22):
and while those events are veryimportant for advocacy, you look
at your cost to raise a dollarand as a donor, you want to know
that you're giving a dollar toan organization and the, you
know, largest percentage isreally going to the mission.
So I think originally, whenLive Like Bella began, it was
you know a lot of that revenuewas coming in from events, which
(25:44):
is really not sustainable longterm.
So fast forward a little afterI started.
Heredes (25:50):
Nicole, I want to keep going.
Yeah For the person, for thelistener, who's running events.
They're probably in the middleof planning their next gala
right now.
Because it's a both-hand, maybeyou guys are doing a little bit
of both-hand.
Nicole De Lara Puente (26:01):
Oh yeah, no, I love our galas, they're
great.
Heredes (26:03):
But tell me, why Give us a tip and a trick here?
Why sustainable, long-termscaling growth volume?
Nicole De Lara Puente (26:13):
Well, because the cost to raise a
dollar of an event is super high.
Right, the best events areevents that somebody else does
for you and they give you theproceeds of.
Right, but our team worksincredibly hard.
We do.
You know two major eventsthroughout the year and they
raise great money.
They really do.
But the manpower that they take, you know, and the percentage
that comes to the mission,they're very important to do.
But you have to have revenuecoming in from other places too.
(26:36):
You know so many of us all, nomatter what business you're in,
learned that in the pandemic.
You know events shut down andyou look at organizations that
were bringing in revenue fromother places that you know were
able to get through that.
We were very blessed really andtruly by the grace of God and
you know, and Bella, wheneversomething cool happens, I'll
(26:56):
call her mom and be like youwant to know what your daughter
did today, because it ain't me,we're not that good.
You know, so I think again,diversified revenue streams.
We receive funding from stateand local governments that I
really wish I had the bandwidth,because Live Like Bella does
assist families in 49 states and37 countries.
(27:17):
But you know we have a team offive and a half because one of
the girls on my team she workspart time.
So you know government fundsare great but they're hard to
get.
They're not recurring dollarsall the time, so you have to
fight for them on a regularbasis and you can't put your
eggs in one basket.
You know there's grant writingalso.
But if you don't know aboutgrants, you know you may have to
hire a grant writer and findingthe right grant writer is hard.
(27:40):
You know corporate partnershipsare also very important.
You know private familyfoundations that give back
individual donors.
I think some of the strongestways to do that and that are,
you know, a challenge for us aremonthly donors.
I think once you engagesomebody for a long period of
time, you know, and you get themengaged and connected to the
(28:02):
organization, that's where yourdonations can continue to grow.
You know is through monthlygiving.
But you have to steward thosedonors as well.
Sometimes you can't forgetabout.
You know the person who'smaking a sacrifice to give you
$20 a month needs to be treatedjust as importantly as somebody
who gave you $200,000.
And it's hard, sometimes right,to keep up, you know.
(28:22):
But sometimes the people whohave the least give the most.
I'm surprised sometimes tocross paths with wealthy people
who don't necessarily havephilanthropy as part of their
DNA.
They just don't.
And I see families who we'vehelped over the years that don't
have much, that have continuedto give.
Love that.
So I think it's justdiversifying where it's coming
from keeping your donors engagedso that they feel like they're
(28:44):
making a difference.
Heredes (28:45):
How are you guys doing that?
Anything that?
Nicole De Lara Puente (29:05):
you've learned since the pandemic?
Anything innovative.
You know, obviously our teamshere work with a lot of
organizations, always innovating, trying new things, testing new
things, anything you guys havefound or discovered or are in
the middle of engaging,reactivating and nurturing or
segmenting maybe out donordevelopment.
Well, look, they're returningthe events.
Right, because the events areyour opportunity to steward your
donors, to showcase all of yourprogress things to them.
We actually do an event that wecall it our celebration of
gratitude.
It's the one event that wedon't use as a fundraiser.
We only do it to say thank youand people are like you're crazy
, I told you.
People said I was crazy becauseyou really should be
(29:26):
fundraising all the time.
But I think sometimes it'simportant to just say thank you.
You know I always tell my ownkids the only thing I want you
to be obviously other thanhealthy is grateful, because you
know who sucks Ungratefulpeople.
There ain't nothing uglier thanan ungrateful person.
So I really believe in sayingthank you.
Sometimes for no real goodreason we don't do a ton of.
(29:49):
We do a good job on socialmedia, on getting the message
out, and we send out quarterlynewsletters, but you know I have
a director of philanthropy andengagement, that she spends a
lot of time, and so do I.
You know spending time havepersonalized touch points along
the way, which it gets harder asyour database gets larger.
Heredes (30:08):
For sure.
Nicole De Lara Puente (30:09):
Right To to just spend time with people
to show them you know wheretheir money went and and being
very transparent about where itgoes.
There's a lot of donors thatthat give money and come back
and you're like where did it go?
You know we have I call LiveLike Bella farm to table right,
you know, like you go to abougie restaurant and they're
like oh, these are farm freshtomatoes that the money comes
(30:31):
right in and goes right out.
So I think it's important tomake sure that the donors see
faces, not just statistics.
We try to, you know, engagechildren as often as we possibly
can.
And it's tricky because in aspace like ours you don't want
to feel opportunistic, right,because you think of children
with cancer and you seecommercials of children who have
lost their hair, because it iswhat it is.
But we'll share those storiesbut help us.
(30:53):
You know, I think corporatesocial responsibility marketing
is very important but it'slucrative for the corporation as
well.
Right, my background is inmarketing, so I get it.
I'll help you, but help me, helpyou.
So those corporate partnerships,I think I don't know.
I guess, to answer that question, the question is just keep
(31:13):
people engaged, show them thestories, show them the faces and
let them know that their moneyis going to somewhere important
Cause this is a I hate to usethe word competitive right, but
so many of the listeners rightnow know it's a competitive
space to raise money andeverything matters.
Right, because you think, okay,children with cancer are the
most important, but you knowchildren with autism,
(31:33):
homelessness, you know hunger, Imean there's so many things
that so many people in the worldthat need our help and as a
donor and you're trying tofigure out where do I put it so
there is competition in thatspace.
You know, I don't like to lookat it that way, but I always ask
a donor what do you care about?
Because if you're sitting downwith somebody and their priority
is you know, I don't knowrescuing animals, I'm not going
(31:55):
to sit here and make a pitch foryou to make a donation to
childhood cancer.
I'm going to ask you how can Ihelp you?
That's great.
Because that's our job here isnot to sit in a space and say
what's yours, what's mine.
We all have a responsibilityand if you know, if childhood
cancer is not the right space,what do you care about?
Let's do it together.
Heredes (32:16):
I love it.
Nicole, thanks for being frankand open about that, because
it's true.
I think there's a competitionfor the dollar.
I think I do think people arewilling to those who are not
donating or giving.
They're spending in somewhereand they're looking for whether
it's the ROI in their mind.
If the philanthropy doesn'tkick in, at least they're like,
if I give to this or dosomething here, if I buy the
shirt and the shirt costswhatever a thousand bucks for
the shirt it's a transaction tothem.
(32:36):
But they're looking for thatROI, whether it's to feel good
or whether it's the reality ofsomething happening in their
lives that now they're lookingfor an outlet to participate.
So I appreciate you talkingabout that because I think it
makes us better, better leaders,better and excellent in what we
do and waking up every day andsay how do I use the tools, the
tips, the latest, and not justsit back and comfortable with
(32:57):
something that was handed to us.
So I do appreciate that andit's it's what we kind of, even
why we do some of this.
What we do to help motivateit's like guys, because it's
nonprofit doesn't mean thatwe're going to be an
impoverished organizationrunning.
Nicole De Lara Puente (33:11):
No, you don't want to be working to keep
the lights on.
Heredes (33:14):
No, absolutely not.
It's the excellence of demands.
We have to be better leadersand I see that, sense that and
know that about you, so I doappreciate that.
With that said, I'm going toflip the script on you here real
quick Tell us more.
I think there are churches andleaders right now looking for
whether it's the next fiscalyear or coming up for partners
like you, looking for places tosend their people or to send
(33:36):
their dollars.
How can they find out more?
What's next?
What's coming up event-wise wetalked about?
Forget the gals for now.
Nicole De Lara Puente (33:49):
No, I want to tell you I want you at
our gala in September, childhoodCancer Awareness Month.
Look, I'm sure you've said thisterm before.
We can all give back in talent,in time or in treasure, and I
think all three are as importantright?
We have a lot of folks who wantto come back and give and
volunteer.
You know especially youngerpopulation that may not have the
funds they want to give back.
You know, with their time andtheir talent and their treasure
(34:10):
and I think you know when yousit down with different church
leaders and leaders in thecommunity, some have budgets to
give back.
You know funds that they wantto involve their church
communities financially or theywant to be.
You know a part of spendingtime with families.
We, I think, have gotten to thepoint, and as much as I can
share with you is what I know.
I can tell you what I don'tknow and a part that we're
(34:33):
growing in.
A lot of smaller organizationsdon't have the opportunity to do
endowments and more.
You know those kinds of largegifts that you're stewarding
money to prepare for the futureof the organization.
While I hope and dream to bedoing this forever, I want to
make sure that the organizationthat I'm leading is sustainable
long after you know we're gone.
(34:54):
So you know, for somenonprofits the cash flow is so
difficult it's a heavy, you know.
Even for us the cash flow whenyou're paying bills for a family
, you know, you can findyourself drinking water out of a
fire hose sometimes.
So we're at a place where weare building an endowment for
the first time, with a long-termvision of the foundation.
(35:14):
So I'm learning a lot aboutthat because, again, that wasn't
my wheelhouse.
Remember I had a cool job at.
MTV.
It's a super cool job.
Heredes (35:22):
Now the sustainable philanthropy here making it last
.
I love it.
Nicole De Lara Puente (35:26):
And I think some donors want to talk
about the longevity Some people.
You know it's hard to talkabout research, right?
Research is not a fun topic.
I love it, I've learned, but Ididn't know anything about that.
You should see me like touringlabs, because we've been to
visit the different labs.
And somebody will be like, oh,you know, I'm just like looking
at the Petri dish, like, oh,it's fascinating.
(35:47):
I have no idea what's in thedish.
So it's hard to talk to donorsabout certain topics.
I think long-term growth, aboutwhere do we go from here?
You know, knowing that you'regiving to an organization that's
going to be around for a longtime, you know it's a challenge
to choose who you want topartner with.
Are these folks going to bethere?
You know, are we going to takeour time and put our heart into
(36:09):
something?
Do they know what they're doing?
Heredes (36:14):
So I think that's, and let me I'm going to get to the
nerdy, geeky part of this realquick.
Just get one which should be areality show to you.
You like an MTV reporter in theback of the labs just asking
the silliest questions, you know.
Nicole De Lara Puente (36:26):
In COVID I went to go to a lab that the
researchers who become dearfriends of mine.
They're Chinese, have a verythick Chinese accent and they
were wearing a mask.
Collin (36:34):
Oh, great and I'm turning the lab and I'm like oh,
that's fascinating.
Nicole De Lara Puente (36:39):
And they could have been like oh, our
puppy died last week.
I'm like that's magnificent.
Heredes (36:43):
No idea what they were saying it was so bad, so, yeah,
(37:03):
sorry.
So it was so bad, so yeah,sorry.
So try me See if I work.
Is it a concept or a specificvariant of a disease, of a
cancer that then gets in the lab?
Universities, students, doctorsbreak it down for the I know
nothing.
All right, I'm going to nerdout on you.
Nerd out, let's go.
I know nothing, but nobodyneeds to know.
Nicole De Lara Puente (37:19):
Actually delete the part I said I know
nothing I'm faking this.
Collin (37:22):
No, I'm just kidding.
Heredes (37:23):
I'm just kidding.
Nicole De Lara Puente (37:24):
So let me tell you about the research
collaboration we've done.
When we sat down, I have a dearfriend who's a state legislator
and when we spoke several yearsago she said I wonder what we're
doing in Florida for kids withcancer.
And she went back and sort oftook a look under the hood and
was like, well, we're not doinga whole heck of a lot.
So we established somethingcalled the Live Like Bella
Pediatric Cancer ResearchInitiative.
(37:44):
It's a mouthful, live LikeBella Pediatric Cancer Research
Initiative.
It's a mouthful, but it's apartnership with the Department
of Health, and the trials thatare being funded has the Live
Like Bella name on it, butreally the state of Florida is
the one who administers how themoney goes.
It's run by I guess I wouldcall it a board something called
the Biomedical ResearchAdvisory Council, the BRAC, of
(38:05):
which I was appointed to byGovernor Ron DeSantis in 2022,
which was a big source of pride,not just for me as a person but
for Live Like Bella, to havesomebody in the childhood cancer
space sitting on a board thathad never had anybody in
pediatric cancer.
So the way that that researchworks is that any researcher,
(38:26):
regardless of whether or notthey're part of an NCI center.
So an NCI center, for those whodon't know, is a National
Cancer Institute sort ofcertified research center.
Heredes (38:36):
Not a government agency , right Well.
Nicole De Lara Puente (38:37):
NCI is a designation that's given to
certain cancer centers, that inFlorida you have Moffitt Cancer
Center in your neighborhood inTampa, you have the University
of Florida and you have theUniversity of Miami.
So those are the three big guyswho are all amazing healthcare
providers who have been, youknow, officially branded NCI
centers.
But if you're a researcher atFlorida State, at University of
(38:58):
South Florida, at FIU, you'venever had access to those kinds
of funds.
So the Live Like Bellainitiative changed that game for
folks doing research in cancer.
You know there's a researcher,dr Amy Tsang, that she's out of
FSU and she's doing research ona very rare brain tumor and Amy
told me she goes.
I had applied for funding 22times in other resources and
(39:18):
never got a dollar.
And now with the Live LikeBella initiative I was finally
able to get this study off theground.
So it goes to show you thedesperation.
You know I had said earlier inthe podcast there's not a lot of
interest in doing this research.
You know it's very discouraging, the numbers are discouraging,
but the research, you know, ifyou're a researcher anywhere,
this specific partnership is inthe state of Florida, but my
(39:39):
vision and dream is to see thishappen around the country.
But the idea you know to answeryour question of what kind of
research, all different kinds ofresearch and my goal is to
increase that funding.
Right now it's $5.3 million,recurring, 3 million of which
are run through the BiomedicalResearch Advisory Council, the
BRAC, and the other 2.3 that aresplit between the NCI centers.
(40:02):
But increasing applications forthat funding and getting the
word out there that it evenexists, that's the only way
we're going to get more intothat fund, because if you're
receiving 25 applications andyou're funding 23, it's hard to
go back and say we need moremoney.
So you know, one of theresponsibilities that we have as
a foundation, just asindividuals, is to increase
applications so that we cancontinue to grow that pool of
(40:24):
money.
Heredes (40:25):
And tell me for those and not those myself.
Sometimes you imagine folkssitting and just writing papers
in a lab quietly, and so there'sthat aspect of that.
There's actual tangible testsand trials and figuring out.
And the big taboo question here, this is the one that's like
Tell me about the cure, nicole.
Is there a cure?
(40:46):
And I don't even know how toask that without sounding
ignorant, but because there's somany different types of cancers
and stages and is it possible,are we working towards that?
Does that motivate people ifwe're talking?
Has there been any glimpse ofhope when it comes to curing?
Nicole De Lara Puente (41:01):
And I trust that there will be.
You know, I think the idea isto make childhood cancer
treatable and curable, right?
If you don't want to talk abouta cure, let's at least talk
about a treatment.
Right?
Heredes (41:13):
You have five boys that have two girls and years of
life.
I love how you talked aboutthat.
Nicole De Lara Puente (41:17):
I mean years of life.
You know, when we look at theamount of adults getting cancer,
they are tragically andalarmingly high and,
comparatively speaking thank God, you know, children with cancer
is lower.
But if you sit and do the mathright, how many years of life
lost are we talking here?
Um, so will there be a cure,god?
I, I pray and hope so, andthat's what we're working on.
(41:38):
Um, you know, having access tofunds and respect for research,
and you know what I think isimportant, um, and one of the
reasons why I've spent time inthe labs not understanding is
because you sit.
I've met a lot of researchersover the years because you have
some researchers that are alsophysicians.
Not all researchers arephysicians and not all
physicians are researchers,right?
So the researchers that don'tsee patients I can't tell you
(42:01):
how many times I've been in alab and asked one of the medical
students, like, have you evermet a child with cancer?
Very rarely does somebody raisetheir hand and I think it's
important to put faces withthose cells being examined in
the lab.
We talked about putting a firein my belly.
I'll tell you how many differentresearchers that I've met over
(42:23):
the years.
You know, for example, there'sa student at Florida State,
chris Hegemeyer, who's one of myfavorite guys to work with.
He's a graduate student andhe's studying the same tumor.
I talked about that.
Ben had this DIPG.
He had never met anybody so hecame to our gala see the events
come back and I sat him as aresearcher in DIPG with a parent
(42:45):
who had lost their child.
It changed the game for him asa researcher and it changes for
a family to see somebody reallycares.
You know there's a lot ofhelplessness and hopelessness
for families.
Heredes (42:59):
Loneliness.
Nicole De Lara Puente (43:00):
They feel alone, Loneliness and you know
when you think, like you know,when you look at the amount of
visibility that other cancersget and I say this carefully,
right, but you know, think aboutin the amount of visibility
that other cancers get, and Isay this carefully, right, but
you know, think about in themonth of October.
You see the pink ribbon, youknow breast cancer, which is
horrible and the numbers arealarming, but from a visibility
standpoint, you have othercancers that have made a lot of
(43:20):
noise.
If I ask you, tell me the truth.
Do you know the color ofchildhood cancer?
Heredes (43:23):
I do not.
I saw your website.
You see what's the color ofbreast cancer.
Pink yes.
Nicole De Lara Puente (43:29):
And childhood cancer is gold and you
don't know that, and I didn'tknow that before I got into this
space, because you don't seebrand campaigns and football
teams.
It's just not something.
Some people don't want to talkabout it.
Heredes (43:42):
And what you alluded to earlier, just the big pharma
money and just the ROI on someof that, it's just not there.
Nicole De Lara Puente (43:51):
It's just not there.
It's just not there.
So the motivation is different,right, and that's why I think
it's important for us tomotivate researchers to see why
they're there and listen.
The Live Like Bella PediatricCancer Research Initiative.
It's run by the Department ofHealth, but we have spent time
to make people accountable,right, I need to be able to talk
to you perhaps not in detail ofwhere is that money going?
It's not my responsibility toadminister their funds, but if
(44:11):
it's going to have our name onit, I need to be able to know
who is doing what.
Connect the dots between youknow, families and researchers,
and actually you want a reallycool story.
Heredes (44:22):
Uh-oh, bring it on.
Okay, watch this cool story.
Nicole De Lara Puente (44:24):
So as part of my Visit the Lab tour, I
can't wait for the Netflixspecial.
Heredes (44:30):
I mean, I want to see it, the story, is so good, so
watch.
Nicole De Lara Puente (44:32):
So 2021, summer of 2021, I'm in
Jacksonville visiting theUniversity of Florida Cancer
Center and I've done a tourpretending like I know what's
going on.
And I go back to the lobby atthe end of the tour with two
physicians there and they saidthanks so much for coming to the
tour.
At this time we were funding Idon't know, let's call it 30
(44:54):
trials or something like that.
I don't remember the number,but we're talking in the lobby
and he says to me he's likethanks so much for coming to
visit.
He's like you know, what wouldbe cool, nicole, is if we got
some of the researchers and puteverybody under one roof.
And I said perfect, actually,we're having our first annual
Live Like Bella pediatric cancerresearch symposium in September
in Miami I think it was Julyand he's like perfect, we'll be
(45:17):
there, awesome.
I go, I walk to the car and Icall Bella's father, who's our
chairman of the board, and Isaid hey, I just made up a
research symposium.
He's like what?
I'm like we're going to get itdone.
And I said I'm serious.
I went through all of the emailaddresses that I had for the
different recipients of thefunds.
I called my friend who workedat the Department of Health and
(45:42):
I said all right, you think I'mcrazy?
How many times have we said I'm?
Heredes (45:44):
crazy.
I think it's a crazy podcast.
We're going to call it thecrazy podcast title.
Crazy.
How many times have we said I'mcrazy?
No, no, I think it's a crazypodcast.
Nicole De Lara Puente (45:48):
We're going to call it the crazy
podcast title and I said let'sdo this.
And at that time people werestill doing things virtually and
I said, no, I'm out on thevirtual.
I really believe in humanconnection and being in the same
room together.
I was kind of tired of the Zoomgig.
So in 2021, we pulled off ourfirst annual research symposium.
I'm happy to say that now, in2024, we will have our fourth.
We have the Surgeon General, whohas come to speak, the
(46:09):
Lieutenant Governor, and webrought people together in this
Research Symposium.
I'll tell you what made itdifferent and of all the events
that we host, right Gallo'sbeautiful 5K.
This is a space that is sort ofa magical place to be because
we open the door to families andvery rarely do families have
access to a research symposium.
Researchers talk to researchers, and opening that door has made
(46:34):
it one of the only in thecountry to do that and it's been
a game changer.
The perspective, the topicsthat are spoken about at the
research symposium some are verydeep and scientific and other
ones get a little lighter,talking about family impact, and
it's a beautiful space.
And, if I can tell you a coolstory, in 2022, we had during
(46:59):
the lunch break, a scientist outof FIU.
She was doing a study or isdoing a study.
That's actually simple.
This one I can explain.
I understood the other one, shedid good.
Heredes (47:09):
No, no, this one did good.
Nicole De Lara Puente (47:11):
So she takes a tissue sample from a
relapsed patient.
They take it to the lab at FIUand they put it in a fancy
machine and they putFDA-approved drugs and test it
against the tissue Anything fromClaritin to a prostate cancer
drug, things that you wouldn'tgive to a child.
(47:31):
They mix it up, you know drug Aplus B plus Q, and they say,
man, it had a reaction.
The great thing is, at thatpoint the physician can go back
and prescribe that medicationand you don't know what
combination of drugs.
I mean it's basic science, butit really like if you look at
the research that is beingpublished as we speak and lives
are being saved now, right whenwe spoke earlier.
(47:53):
Research is tricky to talkabout.
So we're at the symposium, drDiana Azam, she's on the stage,
she's talked about the researchand during the lunch break
there's posters Picture like Idon't know, one of your boys has
had a science fair.
I know you homeschool them, butI'm sure we have science fair
projects.
Heredes (48:09):
The homeschool part is crazier than the number of kids
you have, but anyway.
Nicole De Lara Puente (48:12):
So a picture of a science fair.
Dr Azam has shared her researchand she's standing by her
poster during the lunch breakand there's families walking
around and doctors and stuff anda mom whose name is Diana.
Actually her son, logan, hadrelapsed and he was in a
clinical trial, but theresearchers won't ever meet the
patients because that's allconfidential information.
(48:34):
So Logan's mom is standing infront of the poster and she says
to Dr Azam my son Logan ispatient number 13 in this trial
and we were in hospice and he'shome and he's fine.
And it was one of these momentsthat you saw these two, you know
these two people embrace thatthis researcher conducting work
(48:56):
that was funded by the Live LikeBella Childhood Cancer
Foundation that has saved thelife of a child.
And then we go back people say,nicole, this is so sad.
I'm like you know what I'vebeen to more graduations and
funerals, and that's what thisis about.
Right Is, how do we ensure thatchildren are being helped,
whether it be financially, theirlives are being saved, that
they have access to research?
(49:17):
And it was a very beautifulhuman moment, right?
My crazy idea in the lobby ofputting together a research
symposium.
These families would have nevermet.
So I get sentimental about thehuman connection.
Here the science meets thehuman connection.
For me, it's beautiful.
Heredes (49:32):
I love how you've done that.
It's the science or the sourceof pain, but then the heart
meeting that it just gives youknow a name for the research.
When that researcher is there,it's no longer a number or a you
know a tissue, it's now, it'slike man there's a real life at
(49:52):
the end of this and this comingtogether.
Nicole De Lara Puente (49:53):
So I was at Logan's bell ringing and he
was dancing at Bella's Ball andI saw the dean of the College of
Public Health and I nudged him.
His name is Tomas.
I said, tomas, that happened inyour lab.
Look at this kid dancing, youknow, and I was very proud, very
proud of us taking the lead onthat, and you know.
Heredes (50:03):
Nicole, listen, thank a CEO of a multi-million dollar
organization doing so much good,for you to be living up to your
reputation here, living likeBella number one.
So I give mad props.
But the stories you sharedtoday, the names, knowing and
being involved, I commend you.
Keep it up, I love it.
It makes me want to be a part.
Jump in, Figure out, let's doit.
So thank you for doing that.
(50:23):
I'm sure those who work withyou feel the same and tell us
before we wrap up here and thankyou for your time.
Where can people find you guys?
How can they be a part?
We already talked about thegalas several times and how
crazy you are.
Collin (50:34):
So no more of that.
Nicole De Lara Puente (50:36):
How can they find you?
Heredes (50:37):
What's a call to action , now that they can be a part of
, or jump in or find out more?
Nicole De Lara Puente (50:40):
You know we go back to Talent, time and
Treasure, I think, to learn moreabout Live Like Bella sort of
the basics you have.
You know our website islivelikebellaorg and on social
media, all of the handles areLive Like Bella on LinkedIn, on
Facebook, on Instagram, onTwitter.
But I'm going to do the lastcrazy thing, right, I'm going to
give you and the listener is mycell phone number.
Let's go and call me, text meand say this is what I want to
(51:03):
do to help, or I want to findout more and can personally
reach out to me and we'll figureit out.
You got to be careful becauseanybody's like how can I help?
So it's 786-223-4444.
So you now have the officialCEO phone number and let's talk.
I mean, you know, just, you gotto watch, because when you
(51:24):
offer to help, I'll take you upon it, even you having me on
this podcast.
You have helped.
You know you have helped.
You're helping to share thismessage of faith and hope and
love, and that's the role thatyou played today.
You're welcome to help me raisemoney Absolutely, but I think
that we all come together andI'll figure out something for
you to do.
My daughter's art teacher, mrGomez.
(51:45):
He made the mistake of sayinghow can I help and he painted
this beautiful mural in ouroffice that was donated to us.
We have a little office thatwas donated to us right in the
middle of Coral Gables it's abusiness district in Miami and
he painted a beautiful mural.
From doing that to raisingmoney to you know.
Heredes (52:01):
If you've got the talent, we're going to find you
a treasure.
I will find it.
Nicole De Lara Puente (52:03):
I will track you down.
So, if you reach out, be ready,because we need your help and
these families count on us andthey're who we work for and why
we do this and we owe them.
You know these kids are, youknow they're our future, they
are our legacy and if we don'thelp them, who will?
Heredes (52:25):
I love that, nicole, thank you, your reputation
precedes you, thanks for beingwith us today and I hope a bunch
of people call you.
I really do Text her.
She texts back really fast too.
I'm going to text her.
Nicole De Lara Puente (52:34):
I'm going to text her oh my email here
we'll do my email and everything.
Let's get it, it's real.
It's Excuse for not reachingout to me Anything else?
Heredes (52:45):
WhatsApp, no, no, thank you, nicole, I appreciate it.
Thank you, ace.
I really appreciate it.
Thanks for being on our podcasttoday.
Outro (52:53):
Thanks again for listening to the Nonprofit
Renaissance.
We hope it ignites arenaissance in you and helps you
go further and grow faster.
Be sure to share, rate andsubscribe, and if you'd like to
recommend or be a guest on ourshow, send us an email at
(53:14):
podcastatversecreativecom.
Well, welcome back to the Nonprofit Renaissance, where
we help nonprofit leaders gofurther and grow faster.
We've got a great one for youtoday.
Today's episode is coming allthe way to you from Miami,
Florida, where H is joined by.
Coming all the way to you fromMiami Florida, where H is joined
by Nicole de Lara Puenta, avisionary leader in the fight
(00:31):
against childhood cancer.
As a CEO of Live Like BellaChildhood Cancer Foundation,
Nicole has been instrumental inspearheading initiatives that
have mobilized over $35 millionfor research.
She's impacted countless livesacross the globe.
So stay tuned as we dive intoNicole's inspiring journey and
her groundbreaking work and herpassion for making a difference
in the lives of children who arebattling cancer.
(00:54):
So, without further ado, let'sgo and let's grow.
Heredes (00:58):
We're talking to Nicole , and it's Nicole De Lara Puente
.
Did I get that right?
You got it perfect, okay, causehow did you pronounce my name
earlier, Nicole?
Nicole De Lara Puente (01:06):
Just H, I didn't even try because you
said you were getting butcheredtoo much.
I wasn't going to be like thatgirl Smart smart C-E-D-O
Director officer leader.
Heredes (01:20):
The one CEO at Live Like Bella, did I get that right
?
Yeah, yes, tell us about Live.
Like Bella, I'm excited to talkabout calling our host.
I already told our listeners alittle bit.
A highly emotional, fulfillingfoundation, and organization.
Nicole De Lara Puente (01:42):
Tell us a little bit of the history and
how you got involved.
So let me tell you about Bellafirst, because this is how this
all began.
So Bella was a little girl likeany other little girl, and she
was four years old and she wasdiagnosed with a childhood
cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma.
She was given just a few weeks,a few months, to live, but the
(02:04):
author of life had another plan,because Bella battled cancer
for six years and passed away inMay of 2013 when she was just
10 years old.
In that time, her family Ididn't have the privilege of
meeting Bella, but her family,who now volunteers for the
foundation, has shared so manystories.
(02:25):
Her parents and her familyasked for prayer.
That's really all they wanted.
And her story.
I followed her story.
I would have never dreamt thatGod would put me here today, but
they just asked for prayer.
I think they had like a website.
It was even like Pray for Bellaand the community in South
Florida came together.
(02:46):
There's always a child in acommunity, whether you're in
Wisconsin, in Alaska, wherever,there's always a child that
somebody's praying for.
But Bella she was very specialand during her battle she was in
Houston at MD Anderson.
Actually, she had an 18 hoursurgery.
They really did comb the earthfor treatment for her, and her
(03:07):
mom posted on Facebook that day.
You know Bella just finishedher surgery, she's doing well,
she's in recovery.
Please pray for her and honorher today by doing the things
she loves Take a bubble bath,sing a song, say a prayer, show
compassion.
And she made a list of thingsthat Bella loved to do and at
the end of the post she wroteyou hashtag live like Bella.
(03:31):
So that hashtag was born thatday and fast forward a few
months later that Bella went toheaven way too soon.
The Miami Heat was playing in anNBA conference final.
Lebron James and Dwayne Wadewere part of the Heat at that
time and a lot of people hadbeen praying for her.
They had a lot of followers onTwitter, on Instagram, on
Facebook, and they asked theMiami Heat to write hashtag
(03:54):
LiveLikeBella on their shoes andthey did.
Lebron James did it first andthen the whole team did it and
Bella had passed.
That morning and that nightthey were getting calls turn on
the TV, turn on the game, turnon the game.
And they had just lost theirdaughter.
They were not looking to watcha basketball game and they said
turn on the game.
And they did and there was aMiami Heat, all with Live Like
(04:17):
Bella on their shoes, and it'son that day that her story went
viral around the world.
The live like bella childhoodcancer foundation was born
shortly thereafter wow that's alittle story.
Heredes (04:31):
I love that I love, I love hearing the one, the power
of the story and, even throughthat pain, you know how god used
that and how the influence atthe time and the energy of the
time was channeled for, andwe're looking at what, 10 years
now, has it been?
it'll be 11 in may, 11, 11.
So it's been, you know, over adecade and her legacy lives in
(04:51):
the power of now.
One of the reasons we'retalking to you, nicole, is
jumping into a lot of thefoundations we serve and the
organization.
One of the things I love themost about your foundation was
the listing of some of thechildren and the kids and you
say who we work for and they'rekind of on the website and
they're front and center withwhat they're fighting with, what
(05:12):
the what the battle is nowcancer.
It's an, it's an emotional,it's a deeply emotional right to
um to battle.
Number one what.
What motivates you?
How did you?
You've heard the story.
It's more now than just whethera viral marketing campaign or
something that caught on, thelegacy's, lived on, it's grown
into serving and rescuing andpartnering and battling with
(05:36):
tons more kids.
What motivates you?
What got you in the game?
Why are you here?
Why are you passionate aboutthis and talking to me about
this today?
Nicole De Lara Puente (05:44):
You know, look my background, my degrees
in journalism and publicrelations.
I had worked my entire careerin television and in government.
I worked for MTV, for SonyPictures.
I had like cool, fun, like whenyou're at a cocktail party and
you tell people you work at MTV.
It was like that's so cool.
Heredes (05:59):
So same thing.
Right, you just jumped over tothe same thing.
Well, you know.
So here's what happened.
Nicole De Lara Puente (06:03):
So here's what happened.
I have two healthy daughters andI've always believed that to
those of us who much is given,much is expected.
And when my second daughter wasborn, I was on maternity leave
and I had been traveling a lotfor work and I wanted to stay
home.
And I used to do not stay homebut I wanted to stay in Miami
(06:25):
and I was really involved in thecommunity as a volunteer.
But it would have neveroccurred to me to look at
working in a nonprofit as acareer.
But I can tell you from thebottom of my heart, God tapped
me on the shoulder because Ireally shouldn't be here right
now.
I just listened I know itsounds a little bit cheesy, but
there was a little bit of acalling and I left the corporate
(06:45):
world.
I was very brave to do, becausethe corporate world is a lot
more lucrative than being anonprofit.
But I followed my heart.
I left corporate America towork for a big health system in
South Florida on the fundraisingside and in pediatrics, just
because that was a door that wasopened.
Fast forward, four years laterof a lot of learning.
I meet Bella's parents At thispoint.
(07:08):
Bella had passed, but I was oneof the ones who followed her
story.
I would have never known thatour paths would cross again and
we meet and it really can onlybe explained by God.
So Bella was born and there waslow oxygen during her birth so
she had a lot of developmentaldelays.
(07:29):
Bella, you know, she passed at10 and she had never learned how
to read.
She was very, very innocentthat if you talk to her parents
in her early years they sufferedso much seeing their daughter
get made fun of.
You know kids aren't always sopatient.
You know it took her a littlelonger to understand the rules
she would get made fun of.
You know kids aren't always sopatient.
You know it took her a littlelonger to understand the rules
she would get made fun of atparties.
And because God does this thing, when she was diagnosed with
(07:51):
cancer, you know, a few yearslater they say it was the
greatest gift.
Because she never reallyunderstood.
Bella never asked am I going todie?
Is this going to hurt?
You know, when Bella wasdiagnosed with cancer, if she
heard somebody else had cancershe'd be like I have cancer too.
She was almost.
She was so innocent.
And her father was raisedCatholic and her mother was
(08:15):
raised Jewish, but neither oneof them was very religious.
They didn't have.
They had faith, but theyweren't necessarily practicing
in either of their religions.
Their house was not a homefilled with a crucifix or saints
or the Virgin Mother.
And Bella, in her sleep, wouldwake up and she was talking
about mommy church and theydidn't know what she was saying
(08:36):
and she was like mommy churchcarries me and her parents.
She slept in their room becausewhen she was sick, you know,
they had set up her bed and theydidn't know what on earth, like
what was she talking about?
Yeah.
And Catholics believe that theVirgin Mother has made
appearances on earth, you know,over the years.
And there's the Our Lady ofGuadalupe, our Lady, you know.
(08:58):
I'm sure in Brazil there's a.
Heredes (08:59):
Oh tons, who is it in Brazil?
You've got to tell me, nossaSenhora da Aparecida.
Who is it in Brazil, nossaSenhora da Aparecida?
See, there you go, there you go, yes.
Nicole De Lara Puente (09:06):
So by some process of elimination,
they figured out that Bella wasreferring to the Virgin Mary and
she called her Mommy Church,which was kind of crazy because
they had never talked to herabout that.
And by process of elimination,they showed her different
depictions of Virgin Mother andthere was Our Lady of Lourdes,
(09:28):
our Lady of Fatima, and whenthey showed her a picture of the
Our Lady of Guadalupe, she saidthat's Mommy Church, wow.
And they later looked up thefeast day of Our Lady of
Guadalupe, which is December12th, and that was Bella's
birthday.
She was born on December 12th.
So there was a family that hadfaith, but not necessarily
(09:51):
practicing, and it changed theway that they lived their lives.
When this started to happen,the family saw it as a series of
miracles that God was verypresent in their home and in
Bella's heart and in Bella'slife.
So faith and prayer became avery, very important part of
their day-to-day.
(10:11):
Because when you have a childwith cancer, one of two things
can happen you can lose yourfaith or you can strengthen it.
And it's very easy to lose yourfaith.
When you see a child suffering.
You ask where is God in this?
But when you find your faith,like they did they really.
It was able to bring themtogether as a family, to give
them a lot of hope and peace,not free of pain, but full of
(10:33):
faith, which is not the samething, wow.
Heredes (10:36):
What a connection.
What a connection there on thatOne, the specificity of that
right and helping challengetheir faith.
It is right and helpingchallenge their faith.
It is right, miraculous, kindof like God-sized level stuff
which sometimes it's hard tocomprehend in our rational
day-to-day lives, and how it gotyour attention and grabbed your
heart.
Nicole De Lara Puente (10:56):
Well, it grabbed my attention and my
heart because I opened my heart,I guess.
And while I was working withthe healthcare system, we opened
a cancer center and Bella'sfamily made a donation to the
cancer center.
And that's where we met andfast forward.
We were all having a cup ofcoffee one day and we talked
(11:16):
about what are we doing forchildren with cancer in the
state of Florida specifically.
It was really just a chat, kindof like our chat now.
There was no real agenda, wewere just talking and long story
longer, like they say.
You know her family's like look, we've been running this as
volunteers in our kitchencounter and it's growing little
by little and we don't know whatto do.
(11:41):
And out of my mouth exit thewords.
I don't know why.
I said we should think aboutworking together.
I kind of meant like, let mehelp out, what can I do?
And your father tells me thinkabout it.
I've thought about it.
You're just saying it out loudand I couldn't tell you H?
I don't know what happened thatday, but a conversation started
and you know, here we are sevenyears later and I opened my
(12:04):
heart to it and I asked them allthe time I'm like guys, why did
you pick me?
And they point to the sky andthey're like I didn't.
And that was really a Bellamoment.
And so I took the risk and Ifollowed my heart and everybody
told me I was crazy, which I getcalled crazy often Because you
know why would you want to dothis?
You know, you worked incorporate America, traveled the
world, worked for MTV.
Heredes (12:25):
I got the book.
If you don't have it, is thebook out yet I think, from
cocktail parties to cancer,cuban, crazy, I wrote it.
I wrote it.
It's a CCC, okay, perfect, Ifigured, I figured, I figured.
Nicole De Lara Puente (12:36):
I figured and I don't know, you know?
And people told me like you'recrazy, what is so sad?
And I said you know what's sosad is doing nothing.
I think that's what's very,very sad, and the real death is
not the loss of life.
The real death is a loss offaith.
That's good and I really youknow I opened my heart and here
(12:59):
we are and live like Bella Todayis serving families in 49
states and in 37 countries,something that started in the
kitchen counter.
Heredes (13:05):
Wow, that's amazing.
And tell me, I want to get intoa little bit of leadership and
story.
We're going to hop back andforth.
It's been seven years in thisrole.
Oh, rainbows and skittles, I'msure it's all been easy.
You jumped into millions ofdollars and advocacy.
Exactly no, yeah, for sure.
You jumped into millions ofdollars and advocacy.
Exactly no.
Never liked that, right.
No, give us a journey a littlebit.
You don't have to name anynames, but if you'd like to, no,
(13:27):
but give us the journey.
Some leadership transitions,difficulty stepping into a
beautiful organization like this, but it's filled with people
and challenges and you knowhow's it been, how's the
leadership journey been.
Nicole De Lara Puente (13:40):
So Live Like Bella.
I gotta rewind a little bit.
Live Like Bella today doesthree things, or has three lines
of service, for lack of abetter term.
The first one is helping tofund research in childhood
cancer.
So Live Like Bella, under myleadership, has done advocacy in
the state of Florida and aroundthe country, and at the moment
(14:01):
the Live Like Bella initiativeis funding 66 clinical trials at
10 different institutions inFlorida.
So, we can talk more about that.
That's the nerdy research sideof me.
My heart is there.
Heredes (14:11):
We have many of those listeners, yes, here.
Nicole De Lara Puente (14:13):
So I'll go back to that.
But there's the researchcomponent and there's very, very
little research that's beendone in childhood cancer.
Unfortunately, 80% of childrenwho present with cancer are
stage four.
Children have the physiologicaldisadvantage that they're
growing.
You know, if you have afour-year-old with a headache,
you think they're spending toomuch time on the iPad.
Or you know, if a child has legpain, you're like man too much
(14:35):
soccer practice.
You don't think.
You know they're not gettingscreened like us as adults.
You know, as a woman, you knowyou get a mammogram.
I have a friend who's apediatrician that says sometimes
being a pediatrician is likebeing a veterinarian the patient
can't tell you what's going on.
Heredes (14:49):
Well, being a parent sometimes feels like that too.
Yeah, well, you know.
Yes, that too.
Nicole De Lara Puente (14:58):
So there, you know, there just hasn't
been funding invested.
I think you know you don't wantto run a clinical trial with,
you know, a bunch of stage four12-year-olds.
Your drugs are not going to getapproved, you know.
So the very little that thereis to offer children are
typically adult drugs.
And you know you have fivechildren because you're crazy.
Heredes (15:17):
That's another podcast and I'm sure that when they were
, little, you don't give anadult Tylenol to a child you
want.
Nicole De Lara Puente (15:22):
You know children's Tylenol doesn't exist
in the childhood cancer space,so that's very important for us
to have a seat at the table.
Heredes (15:29):
So the treatment for kids, at the moment it don't
exist, in the sense there's notenough quantity, there's not
enough research, or why.
So if my child God forbid like,are they just being, are they
being experimented on at thiscase, or how would you you know,
I'm not the expert there howdoes that work?
Because, just like there's kidsTylenol now I can now opt for
that.
Good, bad, I'm not sure.
(15:50):
But for treatment is it juststill not advanced as it should
be?
Nicole De Lara Puente (15:55):
It is absolutely not advanced as it
should be.
In the last 30 years there havebeen hundreds of drugs
developed for adults, but maybeonly two or three for children,
and a lot of the adult drugsthat you use on children really
has very, very scary sideeffects.
You know their organs are stilldeveloping, they're still
growing and you know a goodamount of children who receive
(16:16):
treatment experience long-termeffects from the medication.
But, like I said, there hasn'tbeen drug development there.
When you hear the most commoncancers that most of us have
heard of, it was leukemialymphoma, but there's
rhabdomyosarcoma, dipg, atrt,there's dozens of cancers and
(16:38):
there really just have not beendevelopment.
There's no money in it.
If this podcast was about let'sopen a pharmaceutical company,
I promise you, you know, ifyou're looking to make money and
it's not just that right, it'snot just pharma.
Heredes (16:51):
We'll be right back after sponsors.
Oh yeah, I'm kidding, we're not.
Listen, we'll take the sponsorsupport.
Nicole De Lara Puente (16:58):
But anyway, there just haven't been
development.
I'm particularly passionateabout that.
I've heard from researchersaround the country that there's
never been funds allocatedspecifically for childhood
cancer research.
There's families that areresearchers that have applied
for funds and been denied overand over because they're picking
up scraps of funding left overfrom adult cancers and although
(17:19):
the cases of childhood cancerare not as large as they are in
adults, there's 43 familiesevery day who hear the words
your child has cancer.
43 families, if we heard.
You know that's what.
Two or three classrooms full ofchildren.
If we knew every day that therewas 43 children diagnosed with
cancer.
(17:40):
And if you you know, when youtalk about research, sometimes I
always tell people let's notjust talk about the number of
cases, let's talk about thenumber of years of life lost,
and when you have thatconversation you look at it a
little bit differently.
Heredes (17:52):
And those are those that get diagnosed and know.
Nicole De Lara Puente (17:54):
Well, that's the thing it just takes,
you know.
Think about it.
I don't know when the last timeyou tried to make a doctor's
appointment, but if you have aheadache, it's going to be a
minute before you go see aneurologist and then, when
you're like you know what itshould probably get looked at.
Kids are not being wheeled intothe MRI real quick.
They're looking at other thingsfirst and kids have the
physiological disadvantage.
If I introduce you to my11-year-old today and you see
(18:15):
her in in a year, what's thefirst thing you're going to tell
me oh my God, she's gotten whatshe's gotten so big, so she's
growing and the cancer cells aregrowing rapidly right along
with them.
And so that's why, by the timeyou know they're diagnosed, and
you wait two months for yourappointment with your
pediatrician and another monthhere, in six months the growth
of a child is, you know, a lotquicker than in ours.
So I say that it's very tragic,but we really are working
(18:39):
diligently at the foundation tomake sure that we have a seat at
the table and are knocking onthe right doors to say let's
talk about this and what are wegoing to do.
So that's the first line, Iwould say, of service.
Of the three, the second one,which is, I guess, our bread and
butter, is when a child isdiagnosed with cancer, a family
very rapidly finds themselves ina difficult financial situation
(18:59):
.
If there's two parents in thehome, typically one has to stop
working.
Wow, you can't drop off yourdaughter at the hospital for
chemo, go to the office and comeback so very quickly.
A family who had no problembuying groceries has a problem
buying groceries.
Heredes (19:12):
It changes overnight, yeah.
Nicole De Lara Puente (19:14):
So Live, like Bella, steps in and helps
families while their childrenare being treated at any
hospital in the world, helpsfamilies while their children
are being treated at anyhospital in the world to help
pay for rents, mortgageutilities, transportation to and
from the hospital, etc.
It's a very simple process.
The foundation works directlywith the hospitals and social
workers.
Because we got to move quickly.
It's not you know, these aren'temergency services almost to
(19:37):
jump in.
So that's where we carry thelargest, you know, largest
caseload and amount of work thatthe foundation does is in what
we call in-treatment support.
And then the third of the threelines of service is we help
families that God forbid theirchild dies.
We help take care of theexpenses to be able to honor
them in their funeral burialheadstones.
And I can assure you nobody hasprepared or budgeted to send
(20:00):
the child to heaven.
It's very, very expensive andI'll assure you nobody has
prepared or budgeted to send thechild to heaven.
No, it's very, very expensiveand I'll tell you, although you
may be like man, that's thesaddest part of it, I have to
tell you may sound weird to say,but it's probably the most
privileged part is to be with afamily at that moment.
Heredes (20:16):
Really Tell me more.
Yeah.
Nicole De Lara Puente (20:19):
You don't know this, but I may get
emotional.
Oh no, no, really, tell me more.
Heredes (20:21):
Yeah, you don't know this, but I may get emotional.
Oh no, no, I'm here.
I got five boys that I'm likeoh my, you know.
Nicole De Lara Puente (20:25):
look, there's a little boy whose name
was Ben.
He died on November 11th.
I'll never forget Ben.
He had a very aggressive braintumor called DIPG and he battled
for 22 months, which, with thattype of tumor, there's no
recorded survivors and typicallychildren pass in nine months.
(20:46):
But I fell in love with Ben,like you fall in love with so
many of these kids.
And towards the end, his mom.
He was in hospice already andhis mom asked me to come and see
him.
And I've been to funerals ofchildren, which I promise you
you cannot unsee, but with Ben.
I was asked to sit with him inhospice and I remember talking
(21:10):
to Bella's father at the timeand I said you know, gabby has
asked me to come be with Ben.
And he goes.
Look, I can't tell you to gobecause, god forbid, ben passes
while you're there.
I promise you you'll never bethe same.
And he said but I'll tell youthis, if they've asked you to be
there, that is the mostintimate moment for a family.
So I went and there's somelevel of privilege to be there.
(21:36):
That's where your faith getstested right To be there.
That's where your faith getstested, right, because you're
like where's God here and he'sready to receive Ben, and we
listened to music and we satwith his brother and I'll never
forget that moment and I cantell you there was a privilege
to be with somebody at the endof life, to witness that right.
(21:58):
To witness that and when youwere asking me earlier about,
you know what motivates you, whydo you do this, and that's what
puts a fire in your belly.
You know I get a fire in mybelly when I see a researcher in
a lab, you know, makingprogress.
I get a fire in my belly when Isee a family who hasn't been
evicted from their home becausewe were able to help, and I feel
a huge responsibility when yousay you know what this child
(22:21):
shouldn't have passed.
We got to do better.
You know, and I feel it as aCEO Oftentimes, as you continue
to grow, you know you may seethese cases like in a quarterly
report, not us, and I'll neverwork that way.
I'll never operate that way.
You were saying earlier abouton our website how it says who
do we work for?
And I tell my team I'm like youdon't work for me and I don't
(22:41):
work for the board, we work forthese families and whatever
decision we make here, you knowfinancially, emotionally,
strategically, whatever it is,you got to remember who your
boss is and it ain't me.
So being on the front lines Ithink for me has been a huge
motivation and staying missiondriven A lot of times when you
work in, you know in big giantnonprofits you can get a little
(23:05):
distant from the mission.
You stop necessarily seeing thepeople you serve.
You know because you get into acorporate space, right, you
have to run a nonprofit the sameway you run a business in order
for it to be successful.
But when you forget what you'redoing and why you're sitting
there, I couldn't do it.
I couldn't do it.
And when I look at you know,growing our team and hiring
(23:26):
folks, the number one thing Ilook for is somebody who's
passionate.
You know if you need anattorney, you need somebody who
knows the law.
If you need an accountant, youneed to know somebody who knows
accounting.
But when you're building afoundation that there's so many
facets.
What I really look for is goodpeople, people who have faith,
who have passion, who I canteach you how to put together a
marketing plan.
We can figure out how to puttogether a budget, but if you
(23:49):
don't care about this, not theright person to be on the team.
Heredes (23:53):
That's gold.
We can wrap it up right there,guys, guys and here.
But, nicole, thank you forsharing that.
You know when, when we gotintroduced to talk and to meet
today and to and to highlightyou know, live like bell and
your foundation, um, therecommendation was this
incredible, uh, incredibly wellorganized, well run and involved
(24:13):
those are kind of the wordslike.
So you have to talk to themthat's a good reputation,
incredible incredible.
Usually you get oh cool, or theythis, or like a statistic or
something that it's important toright.
At the end of the day, we'retrying to get results and we're
trying to improve the researchor the advocacy, but when it's
like, hey, the reputation isinvolved, well run, you know and
(24:34):
I can tell why.
So I appreciate your years ofservice there and the years to
come.
Tell me about partnerships.
Tell me about some of thethings you've done, some of the
challenges ahead.
I'm assuming corporate partnersare important.
Health partners are important.
What are their roles?
What are the foundation'sefforts and how can we bridge
the gap there?
Nicole De Lara Puente (25:01):
You know anybody who who's worked in a
nonprofit can tell you thatraising money is is hard, right
and keeping your revenue sourcesdiversified.
I think is one of the biggestchallenges.
A lot of times for startupnonprofits you rely a lot on
events right, Especially in bigcities like Miami.
There's a gala every weekend,there's a 5K every weekend,
there's a golf tournament,there's a fishing tournament,
(25:22):
and while those events are veryimportant for advocacy, you look
at your cost to raise a dollarand as a donor, you want to know
that you're giving a dollar toan organization and the, you
know, largest percentage isreally going to the mission.
So I think originally, whenLive Like Bella began, it was
you know a lot of that revenuewas coming in from events, which
(25:44):
is really not sustainable longterm.
So fast forward a little afterI started.
Heredes (25:50):
Nicole, I want to keep going.
Yeah For the person, for thelistener, who's running events.
They're probably in the middleof planning their next gala
right now.
Because it's a both-hand, maybeyou guys are doing a little bit
of both-hand.
Nicole De Lara Puente (26:01):
Oh yeah, no, I love our galas, they're
great.
Heredes (26:03):
But tell me, why Give us a tip and a trick here?
Why sustainable, long-termscaling growth volume?
Nicole De Lara Puente (26:13):
Well, because the cost to raise a
dollar of an event is super high.
Right, the best events areevents that somebody else does
for you and they give you theproceeds of.
Right, but our team worksincredibly hard.
We do.
You know two major eventsthroughout the year and they
raise great money.
They really do.
But the manpower that they take, you know, and the percentage
that comes to the mission,they're very important to do.
But you have to have revenuecoming in from other places too.
(26:36):
You know so many of us all, nomatter what business you're in,
learned that in the pandemic.
You know events shut down andyou look at organizations that
were bringing in revenue fromother places that you know were
able to get through that.
We were very blessed really andtruly by the grace of God and
you know, and Bella, wheneversomething cool happens, I'll
(26:56):
call her mom and be like youwant to know what your daughter
did today, because it ain't me,we're not that good.
You know, so I think again,diversified revenue streams.
We receive funding from stateand local governments that I
really wish I had the bandwidth,because Live Like Bella does
assist families in 49 states and37 countries.
(27:17):
But you know we have a team offive and a half because one of
the girls on my team she workspart time.
So you know government fundsare great but they're hard to
get.
They're not recurring dollarsall the time, so you have to
fight for them on a regularbasis and you can't put your
eggs in one basket.
You know there's grant writingalso.
But if you don't know aboutgrants, you know you may have to
hire a grant writer and findingthe right grant writer is hard.
(27:40):
You know corporate partnershipsare also very important.
You know private familyfoundations that give back
individual donors.
I think some of the strongestways to do that and that are,
you know, a challenge for us aremonthly donors.
I think once you engagesomebody for a long period of
time, you know, and you get themengaged and connected to the
(28:02):
organization, that's where yourdonations can continue to grow.
You know is through monthlygiving.
But you have to steward thosedonors as well.
Sometimes you can't forgetabout.
You know the person who'smaking a sacrifice to give you
$20 a month needs to be treatedjust as importantly as somebody
who gave you $200,000.
And it's hard, sometimes right,to keep up, you know.
(28:22):
But sometimes the people whohave the least give the most.
I'm surprised sometimes tocross paths with wealthy people
who don't necessarily havephilanthropy as part of their
DNA.
They just don't.
And I see families who we'vehelped over the years that don't
have much, that have continuedto give.
Love that.
So I think it's justdiversifying where it's coming
from keeping your donors engagedso that they feel like they're
(28:44):
making a difference.
Heredes (28:45):
How are you guys doing that?
Anything that?
Nicole De Lara Puente (29:05):
you've learned since the pandemic?
Anything innovative.
You know, obviously our teamshere work with a lot of
organizations, always innovating, trying new things, testing new
things, anything you guys havefound or discovered or are in
the middle of engaging,reactivating and nurturing or
segmenting maybe out donordevelopment.
Well, look, they're returningthe events.
Right, because the events areyour opportunity to steward your
donors, to showcase all of yourprogress things to them.
We actually do an event that wecall it our celebration of
gratitude.
It's the one event that wedon't use as a fundraiser.
We only do it to say thank youand people are like you're crazy
, I told you.
People said I was crazy becauseyou really should be
(29:26):
fundraising all the time.
But I think sometimes it'simportant to just say thank you.
You know I always tell my ownkids the only thing I want you
to be obviously other thanhealthy is grateful, because you
know who sucks Ungratefulpeople.
There ain't nothing uglier thanan ungrateful person.
So I really believe in sayingthank you.
Sometimes for no real goodreason we don't do a ton of.
(29:49):
We do a good job on socialmedia, on getting the message
out, and we send out quarterlynewsletters, but you know I have
a director of philanthropy andengagement, that she spends a
lot of time, and so do I.
You know spending time havepersonalized touch points along
the way, which it gets harder asyour database gets larger.
Heredes (30:08):
For sure.
Nicole De Lara Puente (30:09):
Right To to just spend time with people
to show them you know wheretheir money went and and being
very transparent about where itgoes.
There's a lot of donors thatthat give money and come back
and you're like where did it go?
You know we have I call LiveLike Bella farm to table right,
you know, like you go to abougie restaurant and they're
like oh, these are farm freshtomatoes that the money comes
(30:31):
right in and goes right out.
So I think it's important tomake sure that the donors see
faces, not just statistics.
We try to, you know, engagechildren as often as we possibly
can.
And it's tricky because in aspace like ours you don't want
to feel opportunistic, right,because you think of children
with cancer and you seecommercials of children who have
lost their hair, because it iswhat it is.
But we'll share those storiesbut help us.
(30:53):
You know, I think corporatesocial responsibility marketing
is very important but it'slucrative for the corporation as
well.
Right, my background is inmarketing, so I get it.
I'll help you, but help me, helpyou.
So those corporate partnerships,I think I don't know.
I guess, to answer that question, the question is just keep
(31:13):
people engaged, show them thestories, show them the faces and
let them know that their moneyis going to somewhere important
Cause this is a I hate to usethe word competitive right, but
so many of the listeners rightnow know it's a competitive
space to raise money andeverything matters.
Right, because you think, okay,children with cancer are the
most important, but you knowchildren with autism,
(31:33):
homelessness, you know hunger, Imean there's so many things
that so many people in the worldthat need our help and as a
donor and you're trying tofigure out where do I put it so
there is competition in thatspace.
You know, I don't like to lookat it that way, but I always ask
a donor what do you care about?
Because if you're sitting downwith somebody and their priority
is you know, I don't knowrescuing animals, I'm not going
(31:55):
to sit here and make a pitch foryou to make a donation to
childhood cancer.
I'm going to ask you how can Ihelp you?
That's great.
Because that's our job here isnot to sit in a space and say
what's yours, what's mine.
We all have a responsibilityand if you know, if childhood
cancer is not the right space,what do you care about?
Let's do it together.
Heredes (32:16):
I love it.
Nicole, thanks for being frankand open about that, because
it's true.
I think there's a competitionfor the dollar.
I think I do think people arewilling to those who are not
donating or giving.
They're spending in somewhereand they're looking for whether
it's the ROI in their mind.
If the philanthropy doesn'tkick in, at least they're like,
if I give to this or dosomething here, if I buy the
shirt and the shirt costswhatever a thousand bucks for
the shirt it's a transaction tothem.
(32:36):
But they're looking for thatROI, whether it's to feel good
or whether it's the reality ofsomething happening in their
lives that now they're lookingfor an outlet to participate.
So I appreciate you talkingabout that because I think it
makes us better, better leaders,better and excellent in what we
do and waking up every day andsay how do I use the tools, the
tips, the latest, and not justsit back and comfortable with
(32:57):
something that was handed to us.
So I do appreciate that andit's it's what we kind of, even
why we do some of this.
What we do to help motivateit's like guys, because it's
nonprofit doesn't mean thatwe're going to be an
impoverished organizationrunning.
Nicole De Lara Puente (33:11):
No, you don't want to be working to keep
the lights on.
Heredes (33:14):
No, absolutely not.
It's the excellence of demands.
We have to be better leadersand I see that, sense that and
know that about you, so I doappreciate that.
With that said, I'm going toflip the script on you here real
quick Tell us more.
I think there are churches andleaders right now looking for
whether it's the next fiscalyear or coming up for partners
like you, looking for places tosend their people or to send
(33:36):
their dollars.
How can they find out more?
What's next?
What's coming up event-wise wetalked about?
Forget the gals for now.
Nicole De Lara Puente (33:49):
No, I want to tell you I want you at
our gala in September, childhoodCancer Awareness Month.
Look, I'm sure you've said thisterm before.
We can all give back in talent,in time or in treasure, and I
think all three are as importantright?
We have a lot of folks who wantto come back and give and
volunteer.
You know especially youngerpopulation that may not have the
funds they want to give back.
You know, with their time andtheir talent and their treasure
(34:10):
and I think you know when yousit down with different church
leaders and leaders in thecommunity, some have budgets to
give back.
You know funds that they wantto involve their church
communities financially or theywant to be.
You know a part of spendingtime with families.
We, I think, have gotten to thepoint, and as much as I can
share with you is what I know.
I can tell you what I don'tknow and a part that we're
(34:33):
growing in.
A lot of smaller organizationsdon't have the opportunity to do
endowments and more.
You know those kinds of largegifts that you're stewarding
money to prepare for the futureof the organization.
While I hope and dream to bedoing this forever, I want to
make sure that the organizationthat I'm leading is sustainable
long after you know we're gone.
(34:54):
So you know, for somenonprofits the cash flow is so
difficult it's a heavy, you know.
Even for us the cash flow whenyou're paying bills for a family
, you know, you can findyourself drinking water out of a
fire hose sometimes.
So we're at a place where weare building an endowment for
the first time, with a long-termvision of the foundation.
(35:14):
So I'm learning a lot aboutthat because, again, that wasn't
my wheelhouse.
Remember I had a cool job at.
MTV.
It's a super cool job.
Heredes (35:22):
Now the sustainable philanthropy here making it last
.
I love it.
Nicole De Lara Puente (35:26):
And I think some donors want to talk
about the longevity Some people.
You know it's hard to talkabout research, right?
Research is not a fun topic.
I love it, I've learned, but Ididn't know anything about that.
You should see me like touringlabs, because we've been to
visit the different labs.
And somebody will be like, oh,you know, I'm just like looking
at the Petri dish, like, oh,it's fascinating.
(35:47):
I have no idea what's in thedish.
So it's hard to talk to donorsabout certain topics.
I think long-term growth, aboutwhere do we go from here?
You know, knowing that you'regiving to an organization that's
going to be around for a longtime, you know it's a challenge
to choose who you want topartner with.
Are these folks going to bethere?
You know, are we going to takeour time and put our heart into
(36:09):
something?
Do they know what they're doing?
Heredes (36:14):
So I think that's, and let me I'm going to get to the
nerdy, geeky part of this realquick.
Just get one which should be areality show to you.
You like an MTV reporter in theback of the labs just asking
the silliest questions, you know.
Nicole De Lara Puente (36:26):
In COVID I went to go to a lab that the
researchers who become dearfriends of mine.
They're Chinese, have a verythick Chinese accent and they
were wearing a mask.
Collin (36:34):
Oh, great and I'm turning the lab and I'm like oh,
that's fascinating.
Nicole De Lara Puente (36:39):
And they could have been like oh, our
puppy died last week.
I'm like that's magnificent.
Heredes (36:43):
No idea what they were saying it was so bad, so, yeah,
(37:03):
sorry.
So it was so bad, so yeah,sorry.
So try me See if I work.
Is it a concept or a specificvariant of a disease, of a
cancer that then gets in the lab?
Universities, students, doctorsbreak it down for the I know
nothing.
All right, I'm going to nerdout on you.
Nerd out, let's go.
I know nothing, but nobodyneeds to know.
Nicole De Lara Puente (37:19):
Actually delete the part I said I know
nothing I'm faking this.
Collin (37:22):
No, I'm just kidding.
Heredes (37:23):
I'm just kidding.
Nicole De Lara Puente (37:24):
So let me tell you about the research
collaboration we've done.
When we sat down, I have a dearfriend who's a state legislator
and when we spoke several yearsago she said I wonder what we're
doing in Florida for kids withcancer.
And she went back and sort oftook a look under the hood and
was like, well, we're not doinga whole heck of a lot.
So we established somethingcalled the Live Like Bella
Pediatric Cancer ResearchInitiative.
(37:44):
It's a mouthful, live LikeBella Pediatric Cancer Research
Initiative.
It's a mouthful, but it's apartnership with the Department
of Health, and the trials thatare being funded has the Live
Like Bella name on it, butreally the state of Florida is
the one who administers how themoney goes.
It's run by I guess I wouldcall it a board something called
the Biomedical ResearchAdvisory Council, the BRAC, of
(38:05):
which I was appointed to byGovernor Ron DeSantis in 2022,
which was a big source of pride,not just for me as a person but
for Live Like Bella, to havesomebody in the childhood cancer
space sitting on a board thathad never had anybody in
pediatric cancer.
So the way that that researchworks is that any researcher,
(38:26):
regardless of whether or notthey're part of an NCI center.
So an NCI center, for those whodon't know, is a National
Cancer Institute sort ofcertified research center.
Heredes (38:36):
Not a government agency , right Well.
Nicole De Lara Puente (38:37):
NCI is a designation that's given to
certain cancer centers, that inFlorida you have Moffitt Cancer
Center in your neighborhood inTampa, you have the University
of Florida and you have theUniversity of Miami.
So those are the three big guyswho are all amazing healthcare
providers who have been, youknow, officially branded NCI
centers.
But if you're a researcher atFlorida State, at University of
(38:58):
South Florida, at FIU, you'venever had access to those kinds
of funds.
So the Live Like Bellainitiative changed that game for
folks doing research in cancer.
You know there's a researcher,dr Amy Tsang, that she's out of
FSU and she's doing research ona very rare brain tumor and Amy
told me she goes.
I had applied for funding 22times in other resources and
(39:18):
never got a dollar.
And now with the Live LikeBella initiative I was finally
able to get this study off theground.
So it goes to show you thedesperation.
You know I had said earlier inthe podcast there's not a lot of
interest in doing this research.
You know it's very discouraging, the numbers are discouraging,
but the research, you know, ifyou're a researcher anywhere,
this specific partnership is inthe state of Florida, but my
(39:39):
vision and dream is to see thishappen around the country.
But the idea you know to answeryour question of what kind of
research, all different kinds ofresearch and my goal is to
increase that funding.
Right now it's $5.3 million,recurring, 3 million of which
are run through the BiomedicalResearch Advisory Council, the
BRAC, and the other 2.3 that aresplit between the NCI centers.
(40:02):
But increasing applications forthat funding and getting the
word out there that it evenexists, that's the only way
we're going to get more intothat fund, because if you're
receiving 25 applications andyou're funding 23, it's hard to
go back and say we need moremoney.
So you know, one of theresponsibilities that we have as
a foundation, just asindividuals, is to increase
applications so that we cancontinue to grow that pool of
(40:24):
money.
Heredes (40:25):
And tell me for those and not those myself.
Sometimes you imagine folkssitting and just writing papers
in a lab quietly, and so there'sthat aspect of that.
There's actual tangible testsand trials and figuring out.
And the big taboo question here, this is the one that's like
Tell me about the cure, nicole.
Is there a cure?
(40:46):
And I don't even know how toask that without sounding
ignorant, but because there's somany different types of cancers
and stages and is it possible,are we working towards that?
Does that motivate people ifwe're talking?
Has there been any glimpse ofhope when it comes to curing?
Nicole De Lara Puente (41:01):
And I trust that there will be.
You know, I think the idea isto make childhood cancer
treatable and curable, right?
If you don't want to talk abouta cure, let's at least talk
about a treatment.
Right?
Heredes (41:13):
You have five boys that have two girls and years of
life.
I love how you talked aboutthat.
Nicole De Lara Puente (41:17):
I mean years of life.
You know, when we look at theamount of adults getting cancer,
they are tragically andalarmingly high and,
comparatively speaking thank God, you know, children with cancer
is lower.
But if you sit and do the mathright, how many years of life
lost are we talking here?
Um, so will there be a cure,god?
I, I pray and hope so, andthat's what we're working on.
(41:38):
Um, you know, having access tofunds and respect for research,
and you know what I think isimportant, um, and one of the
reasons why I've spent time inthe labs not understanding is
because you sit.
I've met a lot of researchersover the years because you have
some researchers that are alsophysicians.
Not all researchers arephysicians and not all
physicians are researchers,right?
So the researchers that don'tsee patients I can't tell you
(42:01):
how many times I've been in alab and asked one of the medical
students, like, have you evermet a child with cancer?
Very rarely does somebody raisetheir hand and I think it's
important to put faces withthose cells being examined in
the lab.
We talked about putting a firein my belly.
I'll tell you how many differentresearchers that I've met over
(42:23):
the years.
You know, for example, there'sa student at Florida State,
chris Hegemeyer, who's one of myfavorite guys to work with.
He's a graduate student andhe's studying the same tumor.
I talked about that.
Ben had this DIPG.
He had never met anybody so hecame to our gala see the events
come back and I sat him as aresearcher in DIPG with a parent
(42:45):
who had lost their child.
It changed the game for him asa researcher and it changes for
a family to see somebody reallycares.
You know there's a lot ofhelplessness and hopelessness
for families.
Heredes (42:59):
Loneliness.
Nicole De Lara Puente (43:00):
They feel alone, Loneliness and you know
when you think, like you know,when you look at the amount of
visibility that other cancersget and I say this carefully,
right, but you know, think aboutin the amount of visibility
that other cancers get, and Isay this carefully, right, but
you know, think about in themonth of October.
You see the pink ribbon, youknow breast cancer, which is
horrible and the numbers arealarming, but from a visibility
standpoint, you have othercancers that have made a lot of
(43:20):
noise.
If I ask you, tell me the truth.
Do you know the color ofchildhood cancer?
Heredes (43:23):
I do not.
I saw your website.
You see what's the color ofbreast cancer.
Pink yes.
Nicole De Lara Puente (43:29):
And childhood cancer is gold and you
don't know that, and I didn'tknow that before I got into this
space, because you don't seebrand campaigns and football
teams.
It's just not something.
Some people don't want to talkabout it.
Heredes (43:42):
And what you alluded to earlier, just the big pharma
money and just the ROI on someof that, it's just not there.
Nicole De Lara Puente (43:51):
It's just not there.
It's just not there.
So the motivation is different,right, and that's why I think
it's important for us tomotivate researchers to see why
they're there and listen.
The Live Like Bella PediatricCancer Research Initiative.
It's run by the Department ofHealth, but we have spent time
to make people accountable,right, I need to be able to talk
to you perhaps not in detail ofwhere is that money going?
It's not my responsibility toadminister their funds, but if
(44:11):
it's going to have our name onit, I need to be able to know
who is doing what.
Connect the dots between youknow, families and researchers,
and actually you want a reallycool story.
Heredes (44:22):
Uh-oh, bring it on.
Okay, watch this cool story.
Nicole De Lara Puente (44:24):
So as part of my Visit the Lab tour, I
can't wait for the Netflixspecial.
Heredes (44:30):
I mean, I want to see it, the story, is so good, so
watch.
Nicole De Lara Puente (44:32):
So 2021, summer of 2021, I'm in
Jacksonville visiting theUniversity of Florida Cancer
Center and I've done a tourpretending like I know what's
going on.
And I go back to the lobby atthe end of the tour with two
physicians there and they saidthanks so much for coming to the
tour.
At this time we were funding Idon't know, let's call it 30
(44:54):
trials or something like that.
I don't remember the number,but we're talking in the lobby
and he says to me he's likethanks so much for coming to
visit.
He's like you know, what wouldbe cool, nicole, is if we got
some of the researchers and puteverybody under one roof.
And I said perfect, actually,we're having our first annual
Live Like Bella pediatric cancerresearch symposium in September
in Miami I think it was Julyand he's like perfect, we'll be
(45:17):
there, awesome.
I go, I walk to the car and Icall Bella's father, who's our
chairman of the board, and Isaid hey, I just made up a
research symposium.
He's like what?
I'm like we're going to get itdone.
And I said I'm serious.
I went through all of the emailaddresses that I had for the
different recipients of thefunds.
I called my friend who workedat the Department of Health and
(45:42):
I said all right, you think I'mcrazy?
How many times have we said I'm?
Heredes (45:44):
crazy.
I think it's a crazy podcast.
We're going to call it thecrazy podcast title.
Crazy.
How many times have we said I'mcrazy?
No, no, I think it's a crazypodcast.
Nicole De Lara Puente (45:48):
We're going to call it the crazy
podcast title and I said let'sdo this.
And at that time people werestill doing things virtually and
I said, no, I'm out on thevirtual.
I really believe in humanconnection and being in the same
room together.
I was kind of tired of the Zoomgig.
So in 2021, we pulled off ourfirst annual research symposium.
I'm happy to say that now, in2024, we will have our fourth.
We have the Surgeon General, whohas come to speak, the
(46:09):
Lieutenant Governor, and webrought people together in this
Research Symposium.
I'll tell you what made itdifferent and of all the events
that we host, right Gallo'sbeautiful 5K.
This is a space that is sort ofa magical place to be because
we open the door to families andvery rarely do families have
access to a research symposium.
Researchers talk to researchers, and opening that door has made
(46:34):
it one of the only in thecountry to do that and it's been
a game changer.
The perspective, the topicsthat are spoken about at the
research symposium some are verydeep and scientific and other
ones get a little lighter,talking about family impact, and
it's a beautiful space.
And, if I can tell you a coolstory, in 2022, we had during
(46:59):
the lunch break, a scientist outof FIU.
She was doing a study or isdoing a study.
That's actually simple.
This one I can explain.
I understood the other one, shedid good.
Heredes (47:09):
No, no, this one did good.
Nicole De Lara Puente (47:11):
So she takes a tissue sample from a
relapsed patient.
They take it to the lab at FIUand they put it in a fancy
machine and they putFDA-approved drugs and test it
against the tissue Anything fromClaritin to a prostate cancer
drug, things that you wouldn'tgive to a child.
(47:31):
They mix it up, you know drug Aplus B plus Q, and they say,
man, it had a reaction.
The great thing is, at thatpoint the physician can go back
and prescribe that medicationand you don't know what
combination of drugs.
I mean it's basic science, butit really like if you look at
the research that is beingpublished as we speak and lives
are being saved now, right whenwe spoke earlier.
(47:53):
Research is tricky to talkabout.
So we're at the symposium, drDiana Azam, she's on the stage,
she's talked about the researchand during the lunch break
there's posters Picture like Idon't know, one of your boys has
had a science fair.
I know you homeschool them, butI'm sure we have science fair
projects.
Heredes (48:09):
The homeschool part is crazier than the number of kids
you have, but anyway.
Nicole De Lara Puente (48:12):
So a picture of a science fair.
Dr Azam has shared her researchand she's standing by her
poster during the lunch breakand there's families walking
around and doctors and stuff anda mom whose name is Diana.
Actually her son, logan, hadrelapsed and he was in a
clinical trial, but theresearchers won't ever meet the
patients because that's allconfidential information.
(48:34):
So Logan's mom is standing infront of the poster and she says
to Dr Azam my son Logan ispatient number 13 in this trial
and we were in hospice and he'shome and he's fine.
And it was one of these momentsthat you saw these two, you know
these two people embrace thatthis researcher conducting work
(48:56):
that was funded by the Live LikeBella Childhood Cancer
Foundation that has saved thelife of a child.
And then we go back people say,nicole, this is so sad.
I'm like you know what I'vebeen to more graduations and
funerals, and that's what thisis about.
Right Is, how do we ensure thatchildren are being helped,
whether it be financially, theirlives are being saved, that
they have access to research?
(49:17):
And it was a very beautifulhuman moment, right?
My crazy idea in the lobby ofputting together a research
symposium.
These families would have nevermet.
So I get sentimental about thehuman connection.
Here the science meets thehuman connection.
For me, it's beautiful.
Heredes (49:32):
I love how you've done that.
It's the science or the sourceof pain, but then the heart
meeting that it just gives youknow a name for the research.
When that researcher is there,it's no longer a number or a you
know a tissue, it's now, it'slike man there's a real life at
(49:52):
the end of this and this comingtogether.
Nicole De Lara Puente (49:53):
So I was at Logan's bell ringing and he
was dancing at Bella's Ball andI saw the dean of the College of
Public Health and I nudged him.
His name is Tomas.
I said, tomas, that happened inyour lab.
Look at this kid dancing, youknow, and I was very proud, very
proud of us taking the lead onthat, and you know.
Heredes (50:03):
Nicole, listen, thank a CEO of a multi-million dollar
organization doing so much good,for you to be living up to your
reputation here, living likeBella number one.
So I give mad props.
But the stories you sharedtoday, the names, knowing and
being involved, I commend you.
Keep it up, I love it.
It makes me want to be a part.
Jump in, Figure out, let's doit.
So thank you for doing that.
(50:23):
I'm sure those who work withyou feel the same and tell us
before we wrap up here and thankyou for your time.
Where can people find you guys?
How can they be a part?
We already talked about thegalas several times and how
crazy you are.
Collin (50:34):
So no more of that.
Nicole De Lara Puente (50:36):
How can they find you?
Heredes (50:37):
What's a call to action , now that they can be a part of
, or jump in or find out more?
Nicole De Lara Puente (50:40):
You know we go back to Talent, time and
Treasure, I think, to learn moreabout Live Like Bella sort of
the basics you have.
You know our website islivelikebellaorg and on social
media, all of the handles areLive Like Bella on LinkedIn, on
Facebook, on Instagram, onTwitter.
But I'm going to do the lastcrazy thing, right, I'm going to
give you and the listener is mycell phone number.
Let's go and call me, text meand say this is what I want to
(51:03):
do to help, or I want to findout more and can personally
reach out to me and we'll figureit out.
You got to be careful becauseanybody's like how can I help?
So it's 786-223-4444.
So you now have the officialCEO phone number and let's talk.
I mean, you know, just, you gotto watch, because when you
(51:24):
offer to help, I'll take you upon it, even you having me on
this podcast.
You have helped.
You know you have helped.
You're helping to share thismessage of faith and hope and
love, and that's the role thatyou played today.
You're welcome to help me raisemoney Absolutely, but I think
that we all come together andI'll figure out something for
you to do.
My daughter's art teacher, mrGomez.
(51:45):
He made the mistake of sayinghow can I help and he painted
this beautiful mural in ouroffice that was donated to us.
We have a little office thatwas donated to us right in the
middle of Coral Gables it's abusiness district in Miami and
he painted a beautiful mural.
From doing that to raisingmoney to you know.
Heredes (52:01):
If you've got the talent, we're going to find you
a treasure.
I will find it.
Nicole De Lara Puente (52:03):
I will track you down.
So, if you reach out, be ready,because we need your help and
these families count on us andthey're who we work for and why
we do this and we owe them.
You know these kids are, youknow they're our future, they
are our legacy and if we don'thelp them, who will?
Heredes (52:25):
I love that, nicole, thank you, your reputation
precedes you, thanks for beingwith us today and I hope a bunch
of people call you.
I really do Text her.
She texts back really fast too.
I'm going to text her.
Nicole De Lara Puente (52:34):
I'm going to text her oh my email here
we'll do my email and everything.
Let's get it, it's real.
It's Excuse for not reachingout to me Anything else?
Heredes (52:45):
WhatsApp, no, no, thank you, nicole, I appreciate it.
Thank you, ace.
I really appreciate it.
Thanks for being on our podcasttoday.
Outro (52:53):
Thanks again for listening to the Nonprofit
Renaissance.
We hope it ignites arenaissance in you and helps you
go further and grow faster.
Be sure to share, rate andsubscribe, and if you'd like to
recommend or be a guest on ourshow, send us an email at
(53:14):
podcastatversecreativecom.
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