September 9, 2025 • 54 mins
When Ryan Centers and his wife Sarah felt called to adopt a sibling group of five children from foster care, they knew their comfortable life with teenage children would be forever transformed. What they couldn't anticipate was how this decision would crystallize their family's mission and purpose in profound ways.
As leaders of multiple businesses serving vulnerable populations – from group homes for foster youth to residential facilities for individuals with developmental disabilities and luxury senior living – the Centers have created an uncommon family culture centered on teamwork, purpose, and kingdom impact. Their growing team of 400+ staff is making waves across Arizona while their family of eleven children (two biological, nine adopted) serves as the beating heart of their vision.
"Centers do hard things" isn't just a motivational phrase hung in their home gym – it's the foundation of their parenting philosophy. From 6 AM workouts with teenage sons to entrepreneurial ventures like their family snow cone business, Ryan intentionally creates opportunities for his children to develop grit and resilience. Unlike many modern parents who shield their children from difficulty, Ryan believes today's "anxious generation" suffers partly from lack of appropriate challenges.
This counter-cultural approach extends to technology management: no cell phones until high school, no social media until graduation, and tech-free Sundays. While initially met with resistance, these boundaries have created space for authentic connection and conversation. Ryan has witnessed the transformation when young people learn to make eye contact, engage in difficult conversations, and discover purpose beyond screens.
Perhaps most distinctive is Ryan's vision of family as a "kingdom team on mission" rather than individuals pursuing separate dreams under one roof. Through family meetings, service activities, and shared business ventures, the Centers operate as a cohesive unit working toward common goals. This mission extends beyond their immediate family through Friends of Ohana, their nonprofit helping foster youth develop workforce skills and independence.
Ready to rethink what family culture and intentional parenting can look like? This episode will challenge your assumptions while offering practical wisdom for creating a household that builds both character and kingdom impact. Visit ohanafriends.org to support their mission or join their upcoming Foster the Future golf tournament on September 19th https://www.ohanafriends.org/events/golf-tournament.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey friends, welcome back to the Uncommon Freedom
Show.
Today I'm joined by a goodfriend and a very uncommon man,
ryan Centers.
He has actually been on theshow a couple years ago one of
my earlier guests and I'm goingto reread his bio because he's
added to it, like all uncommonmen do.
Ryan lives in the Phoenix areawith his wife, sarah, and their
(00:24):
11 kids.
They have two biological andnine adopted through foster care
.
Ryan and his wife started OhanaAZ back in 2016 after years of
working in the foster care worldand feeling called to do more
(00:44):
is a few group homes has growninto several businesses and
services that includeresidential homes for
individuals with developmentaldisabilities, luxury senior
living, assisted living homesand wraparound social services
for foster youth.
Their team of the growing teamof 400 plus is making an impact
across Arizona, living out andsharing their mission every
single day.
Outside of work, ryan coachesyouth sports.
(01:05):
He sticks to a daily workoutroutine though he's still
working on his golf game, aren'twe all?
And has a soft spot for his koipond yes, very good, we all
have that unique hobby, right?
He's passionate aboutleadership, development, shaping
healthy culture and buildinglegacy businesses that serve the
community and point to kingdomimpact.
(01:25):
So, ryan, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Appreciate it.
Never had quite theintroduction.
Uncommon man, I like it.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It grows on me.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, we just had lunch catching up.
It's been about nine monthssince we got together and
there's that beer.
What is it?
Dosekis, you know, the world'smost interesting man in my.
In my opinion, we need toreplace that guy with you, uh,
because I really do think you'reone of the most interesting
people.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
We had a good conversation, lots of different
angles yeah but yeah, you're,you're good people and like good
for my soul and uh, we havesimilar mindsets in life and
we're just doing differentthings.
Um, but it's cool to see thecommon threads together.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
You are, you and your wife, I mean, you guys
undertake so many things.
You're like the ultimateentrepreneur.
There's people who think ofthemselves as an entrepreneur,
like myself, and then I talk toyou and I feel like holy smokes,
I'm not doing hardly anything,but I love that and everything
you're doing is so missiondriven.
Um, why don't you like wetalked about 11 kids kind of
(02:29):
fill us in on where you knowyour family, your wife, how long
you've been married and justsome of the kids stuff?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Sure, yeah, um, yeah, so we have nine kids at home.
Uh, yeah, so we're just four to15.
Uh, we, we never planned onhaving this many kids.
This wasn't always in the cardsand the plan, but God had
different plans.
Like you said, my bio my wifeand I have group homes that we
(02:54):
had kids that are in the fostercare system and then individuals
with special needs.
And there was this siblinggroup of five kids and very
young, like a baby to like thesepreteens, and they were the
sweetest kids you ever meet anddidn't necessarily have a family
and a permanent place to be.
And my wife and I were justkind of figuring out life and we
(03:18):
had.
Our life was really smooth, butwe just kind of really felt
called to the work and I thinkthat was like three years ago
Now.
We sold our house, reopened ourfoster care license, moved into
and moved five kids into ourhome.
So that was the probably thebiggest like foundational shake
(03:38):
of our family in the history andat that point your family
looked like.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
I mean you had all teenagers and above right.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, well, yeah, preteens.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So yeah, now we're in our forties and back with a
four-year-old.
That's now life is great, butmy wife would say a
four-year-old keeps her verybusy.
Me too, but in fairness, yeah,it's more work for mom.
Yeah, it's a hundred percent,absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, when, because I kind of remember you talking
about some big changes.
I can't remember if you sentout an email or if it was a
Christmas card or what it was.
It was like I wonder if they'regoing to adopt some kids or
something like that.
I wasn't surprised, but at thesame time I was surprised, did.
Were both you and Sarah feelingthe call at the same time, or
(04:23):
was it kind of one of youleading the charge on that?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, I think it was interesting.
We were up in Flagstaff we havea place up there we took the
kids into snow and see the snowfor the first time and they left
and went back down to Phoenixand my wife and I are just
sitting in our living room andboth just staring at each other,
just feel like we've been hitby a car.
And she's like man, if there'sany way we could take in these
(04:49):
kids, and that for me was likepermission to start dreaming,
because I was feeling the samething but I wasn't gonna like
kind of like I know the limitfor my wife.
We're kind of pretty equallyyoked and we kind of worked
together in this plan.
But pretty equally yoked and wekind of worked together in this
plan, but the moment she did itthat next that night we went to
(05:13):
bed.
I did not sleep a wink Honestly,and I sleep, like the moment my
head hits the pillow I'm downand I remember just my head
spinning of like how could thiswork?
What's the plan?
And I'm on and then I'm kind ofpraying through it and I
remember I'm not even a guy thatreally gets on my knees, like,
like, like physically gets on myknees to pray that often.
And I remember that middle ofthe night just getting down and
says Lord, whatever you want,like the Isaiah, the Isaiah
(05:34):
scriptures, the here I am sendme, like I can't like whatever
you want, lord, yeah, so uh oneof the things you said there is
how can we?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
and I my wife uses that a lot when she's talking to
coaches, and coaching people isis just to help people, cause
it's easy to look at things andsay I could never do this.
And the great question is, howcould you?
Because a lot of times we putthings into kind of this best
case scenario and what's reallyhelpful is like, how can we do
this?
Like for Beck and I, when weadopted Evie, we were in a
(06:04):
similar boat.
You know, our kids were all inelementary school or beyond.
We finally were getting thistaste of parenting freedom, like
, okay, our kids go to school,we've got seven hours a day to
ourselves to work, build ourbusiness or do whatever we want.
Um, and then, you know, god putsEvie in our lap and it was a
major life adjustment.
It was like holy smokes, we'reback to diapers and bottle
(06:26):
feeding and all this stuff.
Uh, and one of the thingsepiphanies we had was uh, we
could actually use preschool.
Uh, you know it was notsomething either of our parents
chose to use.
Um, there's nothing wrong withit, is it ideal?
No, but also, being a fosterchild isn't ideal.
And so it was kind of like manif, if we can make this work and
(06:46):
one of the ways we make thatwork is foster or is a preschool
, that's okay, right, it doesn'thave to be perfect.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, and I like, as I fast forward now, looking that
was almost three or four yearsago, and I look at my life and
my wife and I just got back fromvacation.
We took 19 of us on a plane toCancun.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Not all your kids.
Right Family 10 grandparents.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
But you know, bringing nine, 10 kids on a
plane, you try it, yeah, and butwe just sat there and we just
like our life is so full, it'slike it was hard but it was so
worth it and my, we watch ourkids are like it's now.
It's like a big, huge tribe andlike we, they all, just like all
go out together, go to the pooland even now, like they're,
(07:30):
we're, they're always like outback playing together, playing
soccer, goofing off in the pool.
This morning I'm working out,we have a garage gym and I have
all my teen boys that they threeof my teen boys work out with
me every single morning.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That that's awesome yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And now my daughter, who's 15 years old, does cheer.
She's like well, dad, whatabout me?
So, I wake her up at 6 AM.
The boys typically for fourmonths all summer have been
dragging and like act, kind ofyou know, not moody, but because
we have rules in our gym.
If you sit, you're doing your,you're doing burpees, we,
because we have rules in our gym.
If you sit, you're doingburpees, we don't sit in the gym
(08:06):
.
I love it, yeah, and we alwayshave a burnout at the end.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
So we have like a max burnout.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, and normally they're a little quiet, but this
morning their sister's in therewith them.
I've never seen them work sohard in their life.
Yeah, they wanted to prove thatthey knew what they were doing
with their sibling there andthey were putting in work.
They were doing sled pushes andlunges and everything.
So I love watching like themcome together as a unit and I
(08:32):
honestly think it's like afuller picture of life for us.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
You talk about how life, how full you feel with
kids, and you know, I knowthere's people out there who
have chosen not to have kids.
There's some that wanted kidsand couldn't have them.
So I'm not trying to makepeople feel bad.
But there's also this kind ofcultural shift and I know you
work with millennials and GenZers a lot probably more Gen Z,
I think, as a generation, so youknow kids in their 20s roughly
(09:01):
and there's this trend of notwanting kids.
Yeah, how like what are youseeing as you work with that
demographic?
Why do you think they're likethat?
And and maybe help peopleunderstand what they're missing
out at Cause kids are never easy.
Yeah, but one of the things Ishare with people is no one ever
regrets having kids, even ifyou know they're challenging.
(09:24):
Or or you know you adopt a kidthat ends up with a ton of
issues, baggage, attachment,stuff and puts you through the
ringer.
You know, no one other deathdeathbed says man, I wish I
hadn't had those kids.
You know, typically it's like Iwish I'd had more yeah, yeah,
yeah, that's that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, thought experiment, because in reality
is like when I, when I'm workingwith young people, I watch the,
the thing that I notice mostabout the generation that I've
had to pick an adjective is likethis anxiety, anxious
generation, um, and it's noteven like it's not just anxiety.
I think we kind of put it as abadge of honor and a lot of
(10:02):
times for young people, butthere is so much stimuli that's
coming at them in regards tosocial media and just different
content of what to believe, thatit produces like paralysis.
So they get paralysis and theydon't know what to believe
anymore.
So then they get frozen andthen that anxiety says, well, I
(10:22):
don't know what to do.
And maybe they've heard messagesthat you just need to figure
out yourself.
You need to say just live yourdream, live your truth.
And when they hear, live yourtruth, live your dream, it's
like, well, what does that evenmean?
I don't even have a picture ofthat reality.
And I'm watching these youngpeople who are starving for
mentorship and discipleship andsaying like, hey, what's a
(10:43):
picture for my future, starvingfor mentorship and discipleship
and saying like, hey, what's apicture for my future?
And so much of the picture forthe future is like hey, you were
designed actually to have afamily.
You were designed to havesomeone to invest your life with
and to be fruitful and multiply.
And I'm watching these youngpeople wait till, like I'll wait
till.
I'm like have enough financeenough money enough money, or am
I?
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I'm like have enough?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
finance enough money.
Enough money or am I?
I'm stable enough.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
And we are trying to infuse in our kids Even now I
have 15 to 14 year olds, a 13, a12 year old is like there is
honor and excitement of being afuture dad and future mom, and
you should have them earlier,like early and often you know
what I mean Like and part of ourfamily, like as we think of
(11:26):
ourselves, as like this big,huge centers team, like we want
to help, like direct our kids,to say like, hey, you know what?
How many kids are you gonnahave?
Let's, let's create a picturefor what that could look like
for you and we want to even helpbe a blessing for that, yeah,
for them, help be a blessing forthat for them.
(11:48):
But, yeah, this is like a, thisis a new world where the birth
rates in the.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
United States are plummeting Below replacement
rate.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, so like what does that?
What is that going to mean forour world?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, it is really quite interesting.
So with nine kids in the houseand multiple businesses, how do
you intentionally build a legacythat outlasts you both
spiritually and practically?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, I mean, so we have four different companies.
It didn't always start likethat.
I started off as like a serialentrepreneur and I think I was
just like a kid in the candystore and was like I was always
willing to take risks and takingum got me shot in the butt
quite a few times.
Yeah, now I've, like probablylearned.
(12:30):
So I got some battle wounds andsome scar tissue of a lot more
methodical or wisdom.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yes, it's probably true wisdom and a lot of um, a
lot of scar tissue, for sure, uh.
But but we, yeah, as I thinkabout kind of our businesses now
and now having all these kids,I'm trying to think like I have
a limited amount of time andevery single thing I do is super
intentional.
(12:58):
And how can I like layer onmultiple things that are
priorities together?
I like layer on multiple thingsthat are priorities together.
So, for example, my kids aregoing to a high school.
That's like three days a weekhigh school and two days a week.
They do do at home and doentrepreneurship stuff, and one
of the values is like I want toteach my kids hard work, to
(13:19):
develop grit and to be able tobuild their own business and
take their own like, help thembring value to the world.
So not like yes, some of thekids work in maintenance with me
for the company, but like howdo you create your own business?
So we've been part of theintentional time is like hey,
how can I do education but alsoinfuse that?
(13:41):
So we all summer long we'vebeen saying, all right, what
kind of business can our familystart together?
And I think of it and my kidsare like oh, what can we do?
And one was like all right, Iwant to do a.
Um, maybe we can do a coffeeshop.
Now we tried that and it'spretty challenging.
Yeah, uh, maybe a coffee cart.
Okay, good ideas, mobile, lesscommitment, yeah, but okay, we
are.
We all gonna know, as a 15yearold, we have a line and you
(14:04):
have to make all these otherdrinks.
How is that going to be?
That's going to be hard, allright.
Well, when we go to these all ofour events with our kids, what
do we notice?
Oh, they have snow cones.
Dude, what if we just do ourown snow cone truck?
He's like yeah, so we getonline.
They're looking for snow conetrucks, trailers that are used.
(14:26):
What about this one dad?
This one dad?
We had to end up finding oneand we pick it out.
And then the next is like allright, we got to brand it
together.
So we kind of create like a.
We have our own little businessmeeting.
So I'm trying to teach thembusiness, also spend time with
my kids, but then also know it'sfor a bigger purpose, because I
for a bigger purpose, because Iwant my kids to know that we
(14:47):
are a team together.
So when we're going on amission like we're, we're
building a business together.
That's just the tool to helpthem learn one skills uh,
building a business.
But secondly, I need to teachthem, hey, how to work together,
how to like.
We are creatively brainstormingin the moment, um, and it's
been really, really, reallypowerful.
Now they're doing cost of goodsand seeing that it's not as
easy to make money as theythought.
(15:07):
Yeah, and I love watching that.
That's really fun, the ahamoments yeah right, the epiphany
is hitting them exactly yeah,and I think I think so often we
kind of want to separate outparent like spiritual moments
and um, like maybe just just fun, fun moments together.
But I am like trying to infuseit together so like we have our.
(15:31):
It sounds really we sound solame honestly as I talk about it
.
We have so many kids, our lifeis so busy.
We've set up that we have afamily meeting once a week.
Okay, family meeting, we likekind of like treat it like a
business meeting.
We're like a team together.
So every Sunday, after thelittle ones go take their nap or
chill out, the kids will allget together and they get out
(15:53):
their notepads together and wedo a business meeting.
We look at our family calendar,what's coming up?
Because they got to beresponsible, because don't be
asking me a bunch of questionsthroughout the week.
You know what I'm saying Like,don't ask me a bunch of
questions throughout the week.
You know what I'm saying.
Like, don't ask me a bunch ofquestions about the routine and
(16:13):
all of that.
Look on the calendar.
But what I love is that they aretaking initiative, planning out
when they can work, whenthey're going to work out.
But this week in particular, Isaid, hey, we're going to go
walk, we're going to go pray foreach other, and we've never
done this before, like dad willpray or one kid will pray, and I
had every kid do a um, a prayerrequest, even our kid who has a
little bit of special needs,he's.
He gave a request and said, hey, you're going to pray to the
kid to your left and it was like, so good, yeah, and watching
(16:36):
like an eight year old pray fortheir brother, yeah, other than
the nuts, you know.
But like also like understandthe importance of like hey we're
going to, like, lift each otherup.
Yeah, like that.
That's a real thing.
And watching that all happen.
I'm like I gotta and I have tohold onto those little glimpses
of, like, the kingdom of God inour, in our home for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, if there's one thing I've absorbed is you guys
are very good about creating ateam atmosphere in your family.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
You're very intentional and you're very
integrated.
Yeah, and I absolutely lovethat we may talk about this a
little more later.
How do you, how do, how doeselectronics impact?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
what you're creating in your family.
Yeah, I think, and everyone'severy parent is probably
different in how they viewelectronics, and I don't want to
, and it's almost like a verysensitive subject.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, this isn't a right or wrong Right and it's a
sensitive subject for parents ingeneral.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
I have watched countless friends and that their
kids are struggling in schooland are bullied or just obsessed
and not willing to come out oftheir room and I'm like if you
could change the environment andget that, get that phone out of
their hands, that will solve90% of your problems.
I totally agree.
And so we have taken anapproach where we they don't get
(17:59):
a cell phone till high school.
The cell phone has been nosocial media till they graduate
high school.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Cheers.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Love it Because and so that was the thing for Sarah
and I we had to.
Honestly, we had social media,enjoyed using it, had a good
following.
But then we looked at our lifeand like, do we want this for
our kids?
Do we think this is helpful inbuilding them up?
Yep, because I watch all myteenage, all their friends and
every everyone you go around islike they're just scrolling.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, they're hanging out on a couch, but they're not
really hanging out, they're ontheir phones and it's and they
don't know how to have anyconversations.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I teach a a psychology class at a community
college 10 years ago.
Kids would come in talk,interact.
Now it's like quiet, quiet,every single kid's heads down.
And then I have them get intogroups and participate and they
can't even say a word to eachother.
It is scary, because thisbecomes their security blanket.
This, this phone, becomes theirum, the screen becomes their,
(18:58):
their best friend and and theanxiety is so high I don't know
how to interact.
So I'm going to do that.
So we've said it's a pacifierit's a passive.
Yeah, it's a comfy comfortblanket so a couple things we do
we do tech free sundays.
Yeah, no, no technology onsundays.
They hated that first and nowthey end up.
I know I wouldn't say they love.
They say they would never saythey love it they embrace it,
embrace it yeah yeah, it's agood hard.
Yeah, um, that you can't textthe opposite sex, um, until you
(19:23):
get to high school, because oneof my sons wanted to, or
actually they're 16.
They can drive, because I wantyou to learn how to talk to
someone in person.
You don't just get to have arelationship with someone on
their phone.
Young kids nowadays.
What they do he says my friendat school what he does is he
(19:44):
talks, he texts his girl all dayday long and then they are at
school and they walk by eachother, don't even look at each
other.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
but then they'll be texting how sad it is.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So sad, so sad.
So you're like you got to learnto make eye contact with a girl
.
You got to learn to make like,talk to people and have
uncomfortable conversationsbecause that's part of life, yes
, like you just don't get to be.
I mean, maybe down in the AIworld now you can just have VR
relationships.
I'm like that's not, that's notgoing to fulfill your soul and
that's not going to become afamily team long-term.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Have you read the book?
Or the anxious generation?
Yeah, it's, it's, it's a.
I highly recommend it.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, it, it.
I highly recommend it.
Yeah, it paints probably theclearest picture and the most
sobering picture of what thesescreens do to our kids.
Yeah, yeah.
And to us, yes, like theaddiction and then it becomes
anxiety, but it actually haslike withdrawals from this and,
(20:42):
yeah, we got to really becareful with that.
So we have it like lockdownscreen time.
Yep, we check the kids phones,uh, or that are high school.
Um, yeah, I think the thenormal things I I still have to
do spot checks to the kids allthe time.
Yeah, yeah, they plug them up,they plug them in their room.
I got one, my one son.
I was uh, yeah, I tried tosneak it and the next week he
(21:05):
didn't have a door in hisbedroom and that sucks to suck.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Right, it does.
Yeah, it's a normal consequence.
Yep, um, I have noticed that.
You know, you and I weretalking at lunch.
We're both very particularabout who we spend our quality
time with outside of ourfamilies.
Uh, I, I've always trying tosurround myself with people that
I think are going to raise meup.
(21:30):
Um, and I, you know I'll investin others, but the people like
my closest circle you know wewere talking about Jesus he had
his closest three and then hehas 12 disciples.
I'm extremely particular aboutwho's those three in those 12
are.
Uh, I've noticed that, at leastin for men.
I think it might be differentfor women that my close circle
is.
A lot of them aren't even onsocial media.
(21:53):
Yeah, have you noticed that?
Or they're, yeah, like likethey eat.
They might have a facebookaccount, yeah, but they haven't
posted in six months likethey're.
And maybe it's just because myfriends are in their 40s and
maybe, you know, some of themare in their 50s now.
Um, but it's interesting to methat this whole everyone's on
social media thing.
(22:14):
It really doesn't.
In my opinion, it doesn'treally apply to men that I
consider lions.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, that's actually really true.
Like, yeah, my three closestfriends actually don't have
social media at all and yeah, Inever gave that much thought.
But I think that maybe comes acrutch and maybe that's not the
type of people that you want toassociate with.
I don't know, I haven't giventhat much thought, but that's.
I think that the men that Iwant to surround myself with are
too busy and have theirpriorities too focused, that
(22:44):
that just scrolling is notdoesn't reach the cut.
So even for me, we had a goodfollowing.
Uh, we were like I would noticemyself.
I have nine kids, fourcompanies, hundreds of employees
.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
And I had a moment to go look to see how a post was
performing.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
What a waste.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
What a waste.
What a waste of my life.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah, I was like, yes , that's how, that's what I want
for my kids.
Yeah, Because for me it's so.
It's easy for me to make changewhen I say like, okay, when I
look at my kid's life, I wantthem to stand on my shoulders.
Yes, so when I think of legacy,I'm thinking, okay, my kids,
I've done better than my dad,who struggled with addiction who
(23:28):
came from a really terriblefamily and he did the best he
could and I'm standing on hisshoulders.
But my kids now need to stand onmy shoulders and, in far
surpass me, um, be a lion, run,be able to change the change the
world in the kingdom thatthey're in.
Yeah, work hard, have grit andokay, if I want them to stand on
(23:49):
my shoulders and have a legacyand they're building their own
family, do are going to wastetheir time on social media or
just being on electronics aroundthere, because I mean that I
don't see that working out greatfor them.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, I think every parent probably wants their kids
to stand on their shoulders.
But I think a lot of parentstake the approach of I want them
to have an easier life than Ihad, and there's some things
that I want to be a little biteasier for my kids.
But honestly, because of thesuccess that Beck and I have
(24:25):
experienced, we actually arevery intentional to add in some
adversity to our kids' lives.
What's your take on that?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yeah, I mean like for me.
My whole life as a kid I didall the yard work for my mom,
mom and all the neighbors, andnow I have a yard guy.
So that's not a great picturefor my kids, Right.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
So it's like, okay, how do I intentionally teach
them how to do this Right?
So yeah, I mean we have amantra in our family and it's
actually this huge banner thatwe have in our gym and my kids
roll their eyes and we saycenters do hard things, centers
do hard things.
You got to dig deep, you got tolike it's got to suck.
(25:07):
So it starts off as simple asin the gym for us.
You need to bring your, becausebeing physical activity for any
young person to full exhaustionis reorients their mind.
For sure um.
Number two is they always haveto see like I can't be sitting
on the couch just not doinganything.
(25:27):
Uh, when the kids are all doingtheir chores, they need to see
an example.
So, uh, one of the other thingsthat is I have to be super
intentional with when I havesome level of success.
I may not have to, but I'm likeall right.
Hey, um, we were cleaning outone of our group homes.
I could have had our we have amaintenance department that
(25:49):
could do that.
But I said, hey, kids, we'regonna go clean this and I want
to clean that.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Oh no, not at all yeah, but guess what?
Speaker 2 (25:55):
we all went over there and we busted our butt and
sweat and we say, hey, there's,this is the center standard.
They clean it.
Is this the center standard?
No, like, we have to infusethat.
And I the only way to createadversity that I know, is I have
to honestly model it as theparent as well, and I can't.
I have to show them that itsucks for me, like when I'm
(26:17):
doing lunges and I went almostthroughout this morning.
Yeah, it sucks.
Yeah, they need, but those boysneed to see it that centers put
in hard work.
Yep, centers do hard thingsbecause it builds resilience and
builds grit for their life, andthey know that.
Then their bar is here.
When anxiety, the anxiousgeneration, their bar is super
(26:37):
low.
Anytime they're stressed out,they have a test coming up.
They think, oh, I have anxiety,I have to stop.
No, you just haven't had achance to have enough adversity
to know where your lid is.
Kids are much more resilientand resourceful than we give
them credit for and they have toput in that effort.
And they got to put in the work.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, it's so good.
So let's talk about raisinggodly, bold men and young men in
an anxious generations.
How are you helping your sonsdeal with anxiety, screen
addiction and culture's mixedmessages without raising them in
?
Speaker 2 (27:10):
fear.
Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Especially since I feel like, uh, you know,
masculinity has been uhdenigrated for probably 50 years
or so right I mean to the pointwhere if you hear masculinity,
it's almost synonymous withtoxic right and in in in the
bible.
God's intention for masculinityis anything but toxic.
(27:36):
It's kind of like when peoplesay servant, leader.
Like servant is part of leaderright Toxic is not part of
masculinity, like biblicalmasculinity, like it really is
the same thing.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Yeah.
So it's like, yeah, helping myboys understand that they are
called like as a man.
So it's like, yeah, helping myboys understand that they are
called like as a man.
They're actually called intoleadership.
Like this is part this is not a, this is just part of the way
God has designed you to do.
Like, yes, we serve, yes, welead, we step out front, we do
the hard thing first.
It can be as simple as we're upat, we're on our family
(28:18):
vacation in Cancun and we'regoing, we're snorkeling in the
jungle through this river andit's like the kids there are a
couple of the kids and theyounger ones were terrified and
even the boys were a little bitlike what's in there?
(28:39):
I'm like so I jump in and thekids jump in and they they're
thinking this is pretty cool.
And we're kind of snorkelingthrough and all of a sudden you
see all these storm clouds comerolling in.
We're deep in this jungle andthen you hear light, you see
lightning and the thunder'scoming.
You're like my heart's startingto race.
I'm like what the what are wegonna do?
And then I'm like kids swim.
So we are swimming full speedand the kids are just going
after it.
(29:00):
And I know my wife is holdingour grandson in a tube because
she gave up on the snorkel anhour and a half earlier.
So she's holding onto my leg asI'm trying to swim to get to
shore.
And then my other two boys areway out there ready to get to
shore.
And I'm like get your butt backthere and help out your little
brother and your little sister.
(29:20):
So it's like forcing them justlike oh hey, as young men we're
called to serve, it's not allabout ourselves.
Even when you want to survive,even when lightning is coming,
get back there.
And we got to go.
And then guess what I do?
I pump them up.
Dude, you saved your brother.
(29:41):
Oh you are the man High five andyou, like it pumps them up Like
, oh, you're doing the rightthing.
You know what I mean.
You're teaching your kids thatlike, hey, this is what I'm
designed to do.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, yeah, that's what you praise gets repeated
right.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I mean, you know this because you have hundreds of
employees, but a lot of times weforget that with our kids,
right yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
How do you help?
And our wife, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
How do you help instill confidence and boldness
into your boys Especially?
Once again, I feel likeconfidence and boldness are very
much looked down upon in ourculture, especially for boys.
We actually praise it in younggirls.
And I think as a rule, as ageneral rule yeah, boys should
be meek.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah, like, and that's like the exact opposite.
Yeah, it's uh, a lot of my kidsare in sports, um, so that's
for me that's an easy way tobuild confidence in them, but I
don't think that's always thebest place to do it.
Yeah, I don't want to defaultto that.
Yeah, because I have a of kidsthat are really athletic and the
other ones that are not, andthey're comparing themselves to
the other brothers and thatbecomes a thing.
(30:41):
But it's honestly whenever I seemy kids doing hard things that
I have to like pump it up.
Yeah, and it's when my kid whohas a little bit of special
needs he's praying in the circleDude.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
And I go up to him after dude.
That was the best prayer I'veheard in weeks.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
He's like man, that is awesome, like that's building
up confidence and it's likefinding those little moments I
always call him, like I tell itwith my kids, my staff, like we
have like these when we'rereinforcing behavior.
We have junk food compliments.
A lot of teachers we give kidsjunk food, like here's some
tortilla chips.
(31:19):
Oh, that's not good.
Yeah, it feels good in themoment but it doesn't sustain
you.
Like a burger would.
Junk food compliments hey, goodjob, way to go, nice work, like
for what?
Nice job for what?
Like that doesn't fulfill me.
It's like if I say to Kevin Ireally appreciate how
intentional you are as a, as ahusband and as a dad.
(31:41):
Yeah, I really see how youreally put effort into making
sure your boys are raised up tothe next level.
It hits different.
Yep, it's different.
It's different.
So, young, like our boys, weneed to be hyper-focused and
catch it right in the moment.
And we know this.
I think, we feel it, but Ithink, as men, especially boys,
need to hear it from their dadsor from male role models more
(32:02):
than anyone else, becausethere's always a place in the
heart for a 13 year old andtheir question that this boy is
asking themselves is am I enough, am I a man, am I good enough?
That is the longing of everyyoung man's heart.
Yeah, and the risk is that,come to the future, come when
they're 30 and 40 years old,they still don't know.
(32:23):
Am I enough?
Speaker 1 (32:25):
How important is it for men and young men to have
community with other lions?
You know I call them lions oreagles are kind of the two
animal analogies I use for thetype of men that I want to hang
out with.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Yeah, I mean yeah, cause you, uh, a dad, can kind
of speak into a kid's life inone way.
But it's so interesting and my,uh, my boys are doing an
internship.
Um, they're working in, uh, ourcompany and they're doing
maintenance and they go fix likeceiling fans in our homes or
fix.
My son came home yesterday hesaid I installed a, a faucet.
(32:59):
Heck, yeah, dude, that'sawesome, like, and I was super
intentional with who I put himwith.
Absolutely it was this one ofour techs who loves the lord,
works his butt off and uh couldspeak into him.
And guess what this guy says?
The same things I do, but they,you wouldn't believe what he
taught me today.
I'm like, dude, I've beentelling you this for six years,
(33:21):
you know, but it's so important,yeah, they need different
angles of it.
Yeah, I think as I've gottenolder and like maybe it's just
the sheer number of my kids Ihave to be so intentional of the
company I keep my kids as.
I have to be so intentional ofthe company I keep and I look at
their, their, their kids andhow they're they are as well,
(33:42):
and say like, hey, can we bringthem into our inner, inner
circle?
Because I need to continue tolike, let every moment be
building them up and notbreaking them down.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, I've noticed with my oldest son, who's 18, as
he has like starting to spendtime with some of my adult
friends outside of me.
How does that feel it's?
It's actually pretty darn coolbecause you know and I'm I'm
getting feedback from my friendsand it's just so cool because
it just you know he's hanging,hanging around with my friends
(34:14):
and it's just so cool because itjust you know he's hanging
hanging around with my friendsand I'm, like I said, very
particular about who I spendtime with.
So these are men that I trustand I know that the
conversations and just theconfidence you know I mean think
back to.
I mean, like I'm trying toremember, you know, hanging
around with any of my dad'sfriends.
I don't necessarily rememberdoing that, but if I did, I
(34:34):
think I would have felt prettydarn cool and very grown up.
I mean, you know my son's 18,so he's technically a grown up,
but just hanging out with youknow quality men on his own is
it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, they have.
My boy, one of my close friends, is uncle Gary, we call him,
and he's a firefighter, alsoowns a business, and I love when
one of my boys gets to talk tohim about firefighting because
I'm like I see so much of thatin him and getting that
one-on-one time with them ispriceless for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Yeah, all right, let's talk about family as a
kingdom team on mission.
You don't just run businesses,you run them with your family.
How do you view your entirehousehold as a team on mission?
You don't just run businesses,you run them with your family.
How do you view your entirehousehold as a team on a mission
, not just a collection ofindividuals?
Because I feel like, overall,the American family is really
just a bunch of individuals, youknow, with their noses buried
in their phones and electronics,that happen to have the same
(35:28):
last name and live under thesame roof.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, isn't that scary.
It in it and I think that's theway like we have produced it.
The american dream is like you,you do you, you you get to
become the most successfulversion of yourself.
Um, we will support it, um, butwe want everyone to just become
their, their best self.
Yep and I.
I just don't see that inscripture, I don't see that in
(35:51):
the Bible.
There's like, there is this,such, this honor of like having
a family legacy.
And as I and I think abouttoday's world is like it's too
hard to do this on your own.
It's too expensive, it's toostressful, there's too much
pressure.
How in the world could someonejust be totally isolated and
(36:11):
just do it on their own?
So for us, we think about ourfamily as like, hey, we have to
be doing this together, as ateam.
I even use the word teamlanguage because we're like a
family.
That's a team.
When I say a team, it's likewe're not just comfortable,
we're on a mission together.
Teams have a goal.
So us as the center's team, someof our values is to help expand
(36:35):
God's kingdom and help the mostvulnerable.
So for us, one of our missionsis that we help individuals with
disabilities.
So we'll host when we take allof our special needs individuals
to a summer camp.
We don't need to hire staff, wehave the staff.
It's my kids and the otherstaff's kids and they're there
(36:58):
to serve.
They host, they practice for thetalent show, they help serve
the food.
And whenever we talk about theend of summer, their highlight
of the summer, without a doubt,is not just, I mean, probably
going in the jungle and almostgetting electrocuted is a
highlight, right, but one of theother highlights is hey, when I
was talking to this guy who hasin one of our homes that has
(37:21):
disability, and I got him todance during our dance party,
dude, that was a win.
And when one of our youngpeople got baptized in the ocean
during our family vacation likethat, that, honestly, when
those words come out of my kidsmouth, when it's not about them
and it's about others, okay,we're doing the right, we're on
(37:42):
the right path here.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
And I'm like so I'm always as the dad, trying to
create moments where I can helpcreate a team atmosphere.
We were working togethertowards a goal.
Yeah, can help create a teamatmosphere.
We were working togethertowards a goal and I just
happened to use my businesses aslike I got limited time and
we're building assets togetheras a team, but like using that
as as a goal together.
(38:05):
It's like last week I'mwatching I take my two my
daughter and my son to oursenior care homes and we're
going to the home and we doactivities in the morning before
they take their lunch and takekind of a rest time.
And these they're mostvulnerable.
They have a lot of them havedementia, um, and we're playing
(38:28):
uno.
We got these massive uno cardsand that was pretty sweet, yeah,
uh.
But then afterwards I got bringmy microphone and our karaoke
machine.
I say hey, we're gonna do us uh, karaoke.
Uh, my, my mom, who helps outto keep the generations going,
she's like this is gonna be solame, ryan.
I'm like now it's awesome andall of a sudden, what happens is
we all the seniors get in acircle.
(38:51):
I have my daughter, my son,practicing sweet Sweet Caroline
in the car.
They barely know the song.
They're all nervous.
I got to use the mic, yeah, yougot to use the mic, and we
literally had to practice thesong four times.
We waited to go in the housebecause we got to practice two
more times.
Great, we get in the house.
They sing Sweet Caroline,everyone's loving it.
I had two elderly who arestaying in their rooms hear us
(39:17):
singing, come out and then, overand over again, they're passing
the mic to all the differentelderly and they're singing
these 1950s songs I have I haveno idea what these songs are but
I'm dancing with it, yeah.
And at the very end one of ourum, our caregivers, says to he
says, can I sing?
I'm like heck, yeah, he's fromthe Philippines and he says can
I sing Amazing Grace?
(39:37):
I was like, yes, let's do it.
So he starts singing AmazingGrace and it became church.
Everyone got quiet and I lookover and there's this elderly
woman at the end who has beenliving in this home for the last
year and a half with herhusband and her husband has
Alzheimer's and he just passedaway a month ago and I watched
(40:01):
tears streaming down her face ashe's singing Amazing Grace and
the song ends and I go up to herand my kids come near me and we
all pray for her, like on ourin.
We actually we never prayed inthe house before, but it was
just like a moment to do it.
And it was just one lady saidI've never had this older ladies
(40:24):
.
I've never had this feelingbefore.
I'm like it's because God'shere.
Yeah, he loves you very much.
Yeah, and my kids are like.
I felt like Jesus in theweirdest way.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
I'm like yes, you did .
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Yeah, and I'm like, I'm like those are moments
they're just like, hey, it'sjust being open to like to just
go be a team together and try toserve together.
And I'm always like, hey, howdo I create a opportunity for my
kids to experience God, to dohard things?
And then also like, if ithappens to help financially in
(40:58):
the future, that's great too.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
What would you say to people?
Because what you're talkingabout is marketplace ministry.
Right, you run these.
You run some nonprofit stuffand some for-profit stuff,
Exactly.
Do you feel bad, making aprofit not at all, and used to.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Okay, used to okay, I used to be like um, I used to
feel like it was a dirty word,yeah, but then I came like I
have to do well and do good.
Yes, and I have to.
Um, I have to be accountable,like god has called me to raise
up this family, and we have tomake sure, like this, this
continues on for a long time andI got to make sure that they,
(41:34):
yeah, work hard but we can.
It's not, it's not, it's notGod the ungodly to make money
Right, like God has given a giftof generosity and he needs
people to make money, to be alsoto be generous.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Yeah, Cause there's for any, just about anything
that anyone could do.
Yeah, there's going to be somepeople in it that really don't
care about the people they'reserving.
They're just there to make abuck, yeah.
And then there's going to beother people who could take your
approach.
You're like yeah, I'm here.
I mean you have to invest inthe homes and the training and
the staff.
Yes, Right, that costs yousomething.
(42:06):
And then you can say you knowwhat?
I'm going to maximize everyopportunity I have to love on
these people.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Yeah, and that's honestly why, like my wife and I
started a full, separatenonprofit.
We don't collect a dollar fromit.
We have two employees that workon it but it makes a huge
impact and for us we want todirect like, and guess who the
biggest donor is?
My wife and I and of thisnonprofit and we just help kids
(42:36):
who have aged out of foster caresystem.
They work at our restaurant,they work at our um.
We don't make a dollar fromthat.
All of it goes is help trainthese young people how to work
and have the skills to be ableto move forward in life.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
What's the name of that?
Speaker 2 (42:48):
nonprofit.
Uh, it's called friends ofOhana.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yep, and we have um a little, um little cafe in city
hall of Peoria, partnership withthe city, and uh, yeah, we have
a workforce development and wedo life launch there where the
kids come in um and do a day, uh, of learning not just resume
building and job skills, but howto have interpersonal skills.
You get the food handlers card,they get to learn how to make
(43:12):
coffee and then hopefully thatinspires them and then we end up
hiring a bunch of them to work,work there.
And some of the best baristasin Arizona are there and you
didn't.
No one knows that they aged outof foster care, yeah, but they
are.
My hope is that they end upbecoming the next general
manager or we help them launchtheir own coffee truck, and that
(43:34):
would be a really, really greatday.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Yeah and talk about there's a stigma for kids that
come out of the foster caresystem right, I mean very
similar to people who you knowserve their time in jail or
prison and then are trying tofind a job.
Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know the recent statistics.
On average in Arizona about 800kids age out of foster care
every year.
Age out means they have nofamily, no permanent support.
You're 18.
On your own On your own, like Icouldn't do that on my own.
And now, in today's world, howdo you do it?
So, and we know that badcompany corrupts good characters
(44:12):
.
So like, if they're around abunch of hard kids, they're just
they're going to follow alongwith that, but in reality is
like these are just kids thatsimply need direction and
purpose and someone to invest inthem, and they are some of the
most resourceful, um hungry kidsI've ever met.
(44:33):
So for us, like Sarah and I, aspart of our nonprofit, we've
committed just like how do wehelp train these young people up
to make a difference in theworld?
How do we teach them skills?
We have kids working in ourmaintenance department learning
trades, like and I want you tobe the best painter in the world
and you're 19 years old, whocares your age on foster care?
But guess what?
You're going to change yourfamily tree and you get to do
(44:55):
that.
So those are like, as we thinkabout it, we're like hey, how do
we as Christians, as our family, how do we change the family
tree for these people?
And how do we change?
It's changing society inmultiple generations and making
our culture better, and we justneed to give them these skills
and purpose to make it happen.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
So good, so good.
Let's talk about Friends ofOhana and the golf tournament.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Yes, dude, you're a golfer.
I know I am.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Yeah, I'm actually.
I didn't realize you had this,so I'm looking forward to
participating.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Yeah, so we have our, our annual, first annual.
We're just a little babynonprofit.
Okay, so it's our first annualum, uh, golf tournament, Uh, we
are.
Uh, all the money goes ahundred percent to our workforce
development so it helps kids,um, do these trade programs, do
our life launch program, andthen gets them into Hanai
(45:53):
working and supports themtowards independence.
So they have.
The kids are typically 18 to 21in the program and the golf
tournament September.
When is it September?
Speaker 1 (46:05):
And I'll put the link in the show notes as well.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
Yeah, it's in September.
Yeah, you'll have to check itout.
September 19th, yes, yes,september 19th.
Uh, yeah, you can check it out.
It's always called foster thefuture, okay, um, yeah, it's
going to be a great, great time.
We have, uh, paying donatedclubs, nice.
We have tons of great prizes,uh, food, drinks, all the things
(46:30):
so awesome very cool, very cool.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
Well, ryan, one of the things I've been doing is
this car cigars, guns andguitars, just kind of lighten it
up.
Four of my favorite manlytopics.
Uh, and I I also would add Ilove golf and I love poker, um,
but it just doesn't go with kindof the alliteration.
So, um, your favorite careither you have currently,
you've ever had, or maybe yourdream car, I, I love my truck.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
I love my truck.
Right now I have a um alightning f-150.
Okay, I think you were in frontof me, yeah, yeah, today you
were slow okay.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
No, you went the wrong direction.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Uh favorite cigar favorite, whatever one you buy
for me.
Okay, yeah, got it, you just.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
Yes, you're not picky , I'm not picky very good, very
good Favorite gun.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
I only own one gun.
It's a Glock 9mm.
Okay, so yeah, and I got itduring the 2020 years.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Yeah, you kind of had a target on your back, huh.
For whatever reason, you're acontroversial character, I guess
, so it's weird.
I mean you do so much good.
It's absolutely crazy.
Favorite guitar or guitarist Doyou play guitar?
Speaker 2 (47:32):
I do not play guitar, but I feel like I should being
in your podcast studio.
I like drinking a nice whiskeyon my porch listening to Chris
Stapleton.
That's as good as you're goingto get from me.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Very good.
No, that's it.
It's kind of a fun way to learnmore about our guests.
So how can people follow?
I know you're actually spendingvery little time on social
media, so do you have any linksto share at all, or a website?
Speaker 2 (48:00):
You can.
Yeah, you can go to our ournonprofit website,
ohanafriendsorg, to find outmore about our nonprofit.
That's our best way.
Yeah, you can follow me onLinkedIn.
I go on thereoccasionallyasionally, yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
Yeah, I find myself, uh, since I got kicked off of
Facebook, using LinkedIn moreand more, um, and I actually
like it, cause it's much lesstoxic than Facebook ever was.
So, yeah, um, you know, and Ijust want to invite people to
support Ohana Um.
Is that like, if people want tosupport your nonprofit work
you're doing with doing withfoster kids, what is the best
(48:36):
website for them to go to?
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Yeah, ohana, friendsorg is the best one.
Obviously, we have a tax credit.
We're because the five one Cthree and do a tax credit, but
we're super excited for the golftournament.
If you want to be a sponsor,we're looking for a couple more
corporate sponsors forbusinesses or just a foursome or
something like that, or afoursome or something like that
or a foursome okay income.
Uh, we have.
I think we have like 20 more,maybe like 10 more foursomes
(48:59):
okay available.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
Yeah, it'd be a fun, fun event okay, um, and I just
you know I definitely want toencourage beck and I aren't
currently supporting we have inthe past many times and love
what you guys do and you and Iare at lunch.
We're just talking about thefact that there's, you know,
there's some higher profilenonprofits that do great work.
We're not bashing them, butthey're high profile and it's
(49:21):
easy for them to generate, oreasier for them to generate.
They have the ability to rewardtheir donors at a level where
it's you almost sometimesquestion why are people giving?
And and yet you've got a simple, grassroots nonprofit like what
you guys have the reward forgiving to, something like Ohana.
(49:44):
Honestly, you're going to findon the other side of eternity
and in the stories I mean,you've shared some things with
me and they're incrediblyheartwarming experiences and
just, uh, you know, paychecks ofthe heart for investing in the
cool work that you guys aredoing.
Yeah, I mean one of our wellthank you.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
And, yeah, one of our uh, our brew crew baristas.
Um, yeah, she, just she cameover.
I was so excited to share withme from her paycheck, from
working hard and now is becomingthe assistant manager of Hanai,
saved up her own money to buyher first car and now she comes
in and that thing is so cleanand perfect and that is a real
(50:26):
like.
That is a moment for a youngperson to develop a sense of
confidence and pride andownership for herself.
Like that that lives on.
So I look at her coming in hercar and that she's done.
And that was through thenonprofit Cause we, we give coat
, uh, job coaches.
They have a lot of deficitssometimes when they're, they
(50:47):
don't have the skills and theydidn't have a parents to teach
them these things.
So we're coming alongside andhelp coaching them up and help,
yeah, reimburse the rate to makesure that they can, because we
can't, yeah, to help reimbursefor their hourly rate.
But watching her now have theskills to be able to do this and
(51:08):
the smile on her face, I'm likeall right, this is worth it.
It's changing your life, it'slike one kid at a time.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Well, ryan, thanks so much for making the long haul.
I know and for those who livein Phoenix.
We're on opposite corners ofthe greater Phoenix area and we
almost never venture into eachother's neighborhoods.
We'd spend a lot more timetogether if we lived closer.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
That's true.
I would wear a lot more tanktops if I was over here with you
.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
It is definitely my shirt of choice, my uniform of
choice.
But thanks so much.
You know I have tremendousrespect for you.
I appreciate what you're doing.
You know it takes a lot to.
You know, to invest, to start anonprofit, to start the
businesses you have.
It takes a lot of courage, alot of faith and you're taking
risk.
And those who can just donateand support honestly have the
(52:00):
easy job.
The ones who are doing the work, I think, have the much tougher
job.
But I'm just so grateful foryou because you're an uncommon
man who's intentionally raisinguncommon men and uncommon young
ladies and you're investing inso many kids and even investing
in the generation that's kind ofin, you know, the, the
generation that's kind of at theend of their life.
They're in the sunset, but youcan still make an impact.
So thanks so much for beinghere, bro.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
Appreciate it, thanks .
Hey friends, welcome back to the Uncommon Freedom
Show.
Today I'm joined by a goodfriend and a very uncommon man,
ryan Centers.
He has actually been on theshow a couple years ago one of
my earlier guests and I'm goingto reread his bio because he's
added to it, like all uncommonmen do.
Ryan lives in the Phoenix areawith his wife, sarah, and their
(00:24):
11 kids.
They have two biological andnine adopted through foster care
.
Ryan and his wife started OhanaAZ back in 2016 after years of
working in the foster care worldand feeling called to do more
(00:44):
is a few group homes has growninto several businesses and
services that includeresidential homes for
individuals with developmentaldisabilities, luxury senior
living, assisted living homesand wraparound social services
for foster youth.
Their team of the growing teamof 400 plus is making an impact
across Arizona, living out andsharing their mission every
single day.
Outside of work, ryan coachesyouth sports.
(01:05):
He sticks to a daily workoutroutine though he's still
working on his golf game, aren'twe all?
And has a soft spot for his koipond yes, very good, we all
have that unique hobby, right?
He's passionate aboutleadership, development, shaping
healthy culture and buildinglegacy businesses that serve the
community and point to kingdomimpact.
(01:25):
So, ryan, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Appreciate it.
Never had quite theintroduction.
Uncommon man, I like it.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It grows on me.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, we just had lunch catching up.
It's been about nine monthssince we got together and
there's that beer.
What is it?
Dosekis, you know, the world'smost interesting man in my.
In my opinion, we need toreplace that guy with you, uh,
because I really do think you'reone of the most interesting
people.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
We had a good conversation, lots of different
angles yeah but yeah, you're,you're good people and like good
for my soul and uh, we havesimilar mindsets in life and
we're just doing differentthings.
Um, but it's cool to see thecommon threads together.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
You are, you and your wife, I mean, you guys
undertake so many things.
You're like the ultimateentrepreneur.
There's people who think ofthemselves as an entrepreneur,
like myself, and then I talk toyou and I feel like holy smokes,
I'm not doing hardly anything,but I love that and everything
you're doing is so missiondriven.
Um, why don't you like wetalked about 11 kids kind of
(02:29):
fill us in on where you knowyour family, your wife, how long
you've been married and justsome of the kids stuff?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Sure, yeah, um, yeah, so we have nine kids at home.
Uh, yeah, so we're just four to15.
Uh, we, we never planned onhaving this many kids.
This wasn't always in the cardsand the plan, but God had
different plans.
Like you said, my bio my wifeand I have group homes that we
(02:54):
had kids that are in the fostercare system and then individuals
with special needs.
And there was this siblinggroup of five kids and very
young, like a baby to like thesepreteens, and they were the
sweetest kids you ever meet anddidn't necessarily have a family
and a permanent place to be.
And my wife and I were justkind of figuring out life and we
(03:18):
had.
Our life was really smooth, butwe just kind of really felt
called to the work and I thinkthat was like three years ago
Now.
We sold our house, reopened ourfoster care license, moved into
and moved five kids into ourhome.
So that was the probably thebiggest like foundational shake
(03:38):
of our family in the history andat that point your family
looked like.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
I mean you had all teenagers and above right.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, well, yeah, preteens.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So yeah, now we're in our forties and back with a
four-year-old.
That's now life is great, butmy wife would say a
four-year-old keeps her verybusy.
Me too, but in fairness, yeah,it's more work for mom.
Yeah, it's a hundred percent,absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, when, because I kind of remember you talking
about some big changes.
I can't remember if you sentout an email or if it was a
Christmas card or what it was.
It was like I wonder if they'regoing to adopt some kids or
something like that.
I wasn't surprised, but at thesame time I was surprised, did.
Were both you and Sarah feelingthe call at the same time, or
(04:23):
was it kind of one of youleading the charge on that?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, I think it was interesting.
We were up in Flagstaff we havea place up there we took the
kids into snow and see the snowfor the first time and they left
and went back down to Phoenixand my wife and I are just
sitting in our living room andboth just staring at each other,
just feel like we've been hitby a car.
And she's like man, if there'sany way we could take in these
(04:49):
kids, and that for me was likepermission to start dreaming,
because I was feeling the samething but I wasn't gonna like
kind of like I know the limitfor my wife.
We're kind of pretty equallyyoked and we kind of worked
together in this plan.
But pretty equally yoked and wekind of worked together in this
plan, but the moment she did itthat next that night we went to
(05:13):
bed.
I did not sleep a wink Honestly,and I sleep, like the moment my
head hits the pillow I'm downand I remember just my head
spinning of like how could thiswork?
What's the plan?
And I'm on and then I'm kind ofpraying through it and I
remember I'm not even a guy thatreally gets on my knees, like,
like, like physically gets on myknees to pray that often.
And I remember that middle ofthe night just getting down and
says Lord, whatever you want,like the Isaiah, the Isaiah
(05:34):
scriptures, the here I am sendme, like I can't like whatever
you want, lord, yeah, so uh oneof the things you said there is
how can we?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
and I my wife uses that a lot when she's talking to
coaches, and coaching people isis just to help people, cause
it's easy to look at things andsay I could never do this.
And the great question is, howcould you?
Because a lot of times we putthings into kind of this best
case scenario and what's reallyhelpful is like, how can we do
this?
Like for Beck and I, when weadopted Evie, we were in a
(06:04):
similar boat.
You know, our kids were all inelementary school or beyond.
We finally were getting thistaste of parenting freedom, like
, okay, our kids go to school,we've got seven hours a day to
ourselves to work, build ourbusiness or do whatever we want.
Um, and then, you know, god putsEvie in our lap and it was a
major life adjustment.
It was like holy smokes, we'reback to diapers and bottle
(06:26):
feeding and all this stuff.
Uh, and one of the thingsepiphanies we had was uh, we
could actually use preschool.
Uh, you know it was notsomething either of our parents
chose to use.
Um, there's nothing wrong withit, is it ideal?
No, but also, being a fosterchild isn't ideal.
And so it was kind of like manif, if we can make this work and
(06:46):
one of the ways we make thatwork is foster or is a preschool
, that's okay, right, it doesn'thave to be perfect.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, and I like, as I fast forward now, looking that
was almost three or four yearsago, and I look at my life and
my wife and I just got back fromvacation.
We took 19 of us on a plane toCancun.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Not all your kids.
Right Family 10 grandparents.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
But you know, bringing nine, 10 kids on a
plane, you try it, yeah, and butwe just sat there and we just
like our life is so full, it'slike it was hard but it was so
worth it and my, we watch ourkids are like it's now.
It's like a big, huge tribe andlike we, they all, just like all
go out together, go to the pooland even now, like they're,
(07:30):
we're, they're always like outback playing together, playing
soccer, goofing off in the pool.
This morning I'm working out,we have a garage gym and I have
all my teen boys that they threeof my teen boys work out with
me every single morning.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That that's awesome yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And now my daughter, who's 15 years old, does cheer.
She's like well, dad, whatabout me?
So, I wake her up at 6 AM.
The boys typically for fourmonths all summer have been
dragging and like act, kind ofyou know, not moody, but because
we have rules in our gym.
If you sit, you're doing your,you're doing burpees, we,
because we have rules in our gym.
If you sit, you're doingburpees, we don't sit in the gym
(08:06):
.
I love it, yeah, and we alwayshave a burnout at the end.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
So we have like a max burnout.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, and normally they're a little quiet, but this
morning their sister's in therewith them.
I've never seen them work sohard in their life.
Yeah, they wanted to prove thatthey knew what they were doing
with their sibling there andthey were putting in work.
They were doing sled pushes andlunges and everything.
So I love watching like themcome together as a unit and I
(08:32):
honestly think it's like afuller picture of life for us.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
You talk about how life, how full you feel with
kids, and you know, I knowthere's people out there who
have chosen not to have kids.
There's some that wanted kidsand couldn't have them.
So I'm not trying to makepeople feel bad.
But there's also this kind ofcultural shift and I know you
work with millennials and GenZers a lot probably more Gen Z,
I think, as a generation, so youknow kids in their 20s roughly
(09:01):
and there's this trend of notwanting kids.
Yeah, how like what are youseeing as you work with that
demographic?
Why do you think they're likethat?
And and maybe help peopleunderstand what they're missing
out at Cause kids are never easy.
Yeah, but one of the things Ishare with people is no one ever
regrets having kids, even ifyou know they're challenging.
(09:24):
Or or you know you adopt a kidthat ends up with a ton of
issues, baggage, attachment,stuff and puts you through the
ringer.
You know, no one other deathdeathbed says man, I wish I
hadn't had those kids.
You know, typically it's like Iwish I'd had more yeah, yeah,
yeah, that's that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, thought experiment, because in reality
is like when I, when I'm workingwith young people, I watch the,
the thing that I notice mostabout the generation that I've
had to pick an adjective is likethis anxiety, anxious
generation, um, and it's noteven like it's not just anxiety.
I think we kind of put it as abadge of honor and a lot of
(10:02):
times for young people, butthere is so much stimuli that's
coming at them in regards tosocial media and just different
content of what to believe, thatit produces like paralysis.
So they get paralysis and theydon't know what to believe
anymore.
So then they get frozen andthen that anxiety says, well, I
(10:22):
don't know what to do.
And maybe they've heard messagesthat you just need to figure
out yourself.
You need to say just live yourdream, live your truth.
And when they hear, live yourtruth, live your dream, it's
like, well, what does that evenmean?
I don't even have a picture ofthat reality.
And I'm watching these youngpeople who are starving for
mentorship and discipleship andsaying like, hey, what's a
(10:43):
picture for my future, starvingfor mentorship and discipleship
and saying like, hey, what's apicture for my future?
And so much of the picture forthe future is like hey, you were
designed actually to have afamily.
You were designed to havesomeone to invest your life with
and to be fruitful and multiply.
And I'm watching these youngpeople wait till, like I'll wait
till.
I'm like have enough financeenough money enough money, or am
I?
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I'm like have enough?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
finance enough money.
Enough money or am I?
I'm stable enough.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
And we are trying to infuse in our kids Even now I
have 15 to 14 year olds, a 13, a12 year old is like there is
honor and excitement of being afuture dad and future mom, and
you should have them earlier,like early and often you know
what I mean Like and part of ourfamily, like as we think of
(11:26):
ourselves, as like this big,huge centers team, like we want
to help, like direct our kids,to say like, hey, you know what?
How many kids are you gonnahave?
Let's, let's create a picturefor what that could look like
for you and we want to even helpbe a blessing for that, yeah,
for them, help be a blessing forthat for them.
(11:48):
But, yeah, this is like a, thisis a new world where the birth
rates in the.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
United States are plummeting Below replacement
rate.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, so like what does that?
What is that going to mean forour world?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, it is really quite interesting.
So with nine kids in the houseand multiple businesses, how do
you intentionally build a legacythat outlasts you both
spiritually and practically?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, I mean, so we have four different companies.
It didn't always start likethat.
I started off as like a serialentrepreneur and I think I was
just like a kid in the candystore and was like I was always
willing to take risks and takingum got me shot in the butt
quite a few times.
Yeah, now I've, like probablylearned.
(12:30):
So I got some battle wounds andsome scar tissue of a lot more
methodical or wisdom.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yes, it's probably true wisdom and a lot of um, a
lot of scar tissue, for sure, uh.
But but we, yeah, as I thinkabout kind of our businesses now
and now having all these kids,I'm trying to think like I have
a limited amount of time andevery single thing I do is super
intentional.
(12:58):
And how can I like layer onmultiple things that are
priorities together?
I like layer on multiple thingsthat are priorities together.
So, for example, my kids aregoing to a high school.
That's like three days a weekhigh school and two days a week.
They do do at home and doentrepreneurship stuff, and one
of the values is like I want toteach my kids hard work, to
(13:19):
develop grit and to be able tobuild their own business and
take their own like, help thembring value to the world.
So not like yes, some of thekids work in maintenance with me
for the company, but like howdo you create your own business?
So we've been part of theintentional time is like hey,
how can I do education but alsoinfuse that?
(13:41):
So we all summer long we'vebeen saying, all right, what
kind of business can our familystart together?
And I think of it and my kidsare like oh, what can we do?
And one was like all right, Iwant to do a.
Um, maybe we can do a coffeeshop.
Now we tried that and it'spretty challenging.
Yeah, uh, maybe a coffee cart.
Okay, good ideas, mobile, lesscommitment, yeah, but okay, we
are.
We all gonna know, as a 15yearold, we have a line and you
(14:04):
have to make all these otherdrinks.
How is that going to be?
That's going to be hard, allright.
Well, when we go to these all ofour events with our kids, what
do we notice?
Oh, they have snow cones.
Dude, what if we just do ourown snow cone truck?
He's like yeah, so we getonline.
They're looking for snow conetrucks, trailers that are used.
(14:26):
What about this one dad?
This one dad?
We had to end up finding oneand we pick it out.
And then the next is like allright, we got to brand it
together.
So we kind of create like a.
We have our own little businessmeeting.
So I'm trying to teach thembusiness, also spend time with
my kids, but then also know it'sfor a bigger purpose, because I
for a bigger purpose, because Iwant my kids to know that we
(14:47):
are a team together.
So when we're going on amission like we're, we're
building a business together.
That's just the tool to helpthem learn one skills uh,
building a business.
But secondly, I need to teachthem, hey, how to work together,
how to like.
We are creatively brainstormingin the moment, um, and it's
been really, really, reallypowerful.
Now they're doing cost of goodsand seeing that it's not as
easy to make money as theythought.
(15:07):
Yeah, and I love watching that.
That's really fun, the ahamoments yeah right, the epiphany
is hitting them exactly yeah,and I think I think so often we
kind of want to separate outparent like spiritual moments
and um, like maybe just just fun, fun moments together.
But I am like trying to infuseit together so like we have our.
(15:31):
It sounds really we sound solame honestly as I talk about it
.
We have so many kids, our lifeis so busy.
We've set up that we have afamily meeting once a week.
Okay, family meeting, we likekind of like treat it like a
business meeting.
We're like a team together.
So every Sunday, after thelittle ones go take their nap or
chill out, the kids will allget together and they get out
(15:53):
their notepads together and wedo a business meeting.
We look at our family calendar,what's coming up?
Because they got to beresponsible, because don't be
asking me a bunch of questionsthroughout the week.
You know what I'm saying Like,don't ask me a bunch of
questions throughout the week.
You know what I'm saying.
Like, don't ask me a bunch ofquestions about the routine and
(16:13):
all of that.
Look on the calendar.
But what I love is that they aretaking initiative, planning out
when they can work, whenthey're going to work out.
But this week in particular, Isaid, hey, we're going to go
walk, we're going to go pray foreach other, and we've never
done this before, like dad willpray or one kid will pray, and I
had every kid do a um, a prayerrequest, even our kid who has a
little bit of special needs,he's.
He gave a request and said, hey, you're going to pray to the
kid to your left and it was like, so good, yeah, and watching
(16:36):
like an eight year old pray fortheir brother, yeah, other than
the nuts, you know.
But like also like understandthe importance of like hey we're
going to, like, lift each otherup.
Yeah, like that.
That's a real thing.
And watching that all happen.
I'm like I gotta and I have tohold onto those little glimpses
of, like, the kingdom of God inour, in our home for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, if there's one thing I've absorbed is you guys
are very good about creating ateam atmosphere in your family.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
You're very intentional and you're very
integrated.
Yeah, and I absolutely lovethat we may talk about this a
little more later.
How do you, how do, how doeselectronics impact?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
what you're creating in your family.
Yeah, I think, and everyone'severy parent is probably
different in how they viewelectronics, and I don't want to
, and it's almost like a verysensitive subject.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, this isn't a right or wrong Right and it's a
sensitive subject for parents ingeneral.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
I have watched countless friends and that their
kids are struggling in schooland are bullied or just obsessed
and not willing to come out oftheir room and I'm like if you
could change the environment andget that, get that phone out of
their hands, that will solve90% of your problems.
I totally agree.
And so we have taken anapproach where we they don't get
(17:59):
a cell phone till high school.
The cell phone has been nosocial media till they graduate
high school.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Cheers.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Love it Because and so that was the thing for Sarah
and I we had to.
Honestly, we had social media,enjoyed using it, had a good
following.
But then we looked at our lifeand like, do we want this for
our kids?
Do we think this is helpful inbuilding them up?
Yep, because I watch all myteenage, all their friends and
every everyone you go around islike they're just scrolling.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, they're hanging out on a couch, but they're not
really hanging out, they're ontheir phones and it's and they
don't know how to have anyconversations.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I teach a a psychology class at a community
college 10 years ago.
Kids would come in talk,interact.
Now it's like quiet, quiet,every single kid's heads down.
And then I have them get intogroups and participate and they
can't even say a word to eachother.
It is scary, because thisbecomes their security blanket.
This, this phone, becomes theirum, the screen becomes their,
(18:58):
their best friend and and theanxiety is so high I don't know
how to interact.
So I'm going to do that.
So we've said it's a pacifierit's a passive.
Yeah, it's a comfy comfortblanket so a couple things we do
we do tech free sundays.
Yeah, no, no technology onsundays.
They hated that first and nowthey end up.
I know I wouldn't say they love.
They say they would never saythey love it they embrace it,
embrace it yeah yeah, it's agood hard.
Yeah, um, that you can't textthe opposite sex, um, until you
(19:23):
get to high school, because oneof my sons wanted to, or
actually they're 16.
They can drive, because I wantyou to learn how to talk to
someone in person.
You don't just get to have arelationship with someone on
their phone.
Young kids nowadays.
What they do he says my friendat school what he does is he
(19:44):
talks, he texts his girl all dayday long and then they are at
school and they walk by eachother, don't even look at each
other.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
but then they'll be texting how sad it is.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So sad, so sad.
So you're like you got to learnto make eye contact with a girl
.
You got to learn to make like,talk to people and have
uncomfortable conversationsbecause that's part of life, yes
, like you just don't get to be.
I mean, maybe down in the AIworld now you can just have VR
relationships.
I'm like that's not, that's notgoing to fulfill your soul and
that's not going to become afamily team long-term.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Have you read the book?
Or the anxious generation?
Yeah, it's, it's, it's a.
I highly recommend it.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, it, it.
I highly recommend it.
Yeah, it paints probably theclearest picture and the most
sobering picture of what thesescreens do to our kids.
Yeah, yeah.
And to us, yes, like theaddiction and then it becomes
anxiety, but it actually haslike withdrawals from this and,
(20:42):
yeah, we got to really becareful with that.
So we have it like lockdownscreen time.
Yep, we check the kids phones,uh, or that are high school.
Um, yeah, I think the thenormal things I I still have to
do spot checks to the kids allthe time.
Yeah, yeah, they plug them up,they plug them in their room.
I got one, my one son.
I was uh, yeah, I tried tosneak it and the next week he
(21:05):
didn't have a door in hisbedroom and that sucks to suck.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Right, it does.
Yeah, it's a normal consequence.
Yep, um, I have noticed that.
You know, you and I weretalking at lunch.
We're both very particularabout who we spend our quality
time with outside of ourfamilies.
Uh, I, I've always trying tosurround myself with people that
I think are going to raise meup.
(21:30):
Um, and I, you know I'll investin others, but the people like
my closest circle you know wewere talking about Jesus he had
his closest three and then hehas 12 disciples.
I'm extremely particular aboutwho's those three in those 12
are.
Uh, I've noticed that, at leastin for men.
I think it might be differentfor women that my close circle
is.
A lot of them aren't even onsocial media.
(21:53):
Yeah, have you noticed that?
Or they're, yeah, like likethey eat.
They might have a facebookaccount, yeah, but they haven't
posted in six months likethey're.
And maybe it's just because myfriends are in their 40s and
maybe, you know, some of themare in their 50s now.
Um, but it's interesting to methat this whole everyone's on
social media thing.
(22:14):
It really doesn't.
In my opinion, it doesn'treally apply to men that I
consider lions.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, that's actually really true.
Like, yeah, my three closestfriends actually don't have
social media at all and yeah, Inever gave that much thought.
But I think that maybe comes acrutch and maybe that's not the
type of people that you want toassociate with.
I don't know, I haven't giventhat much thought, but that's.
I think that the men that Iwant to surround myself with are
too busy and have theirpriorities too focused, that
(22:44):
that just scrolling is notdoesn't reach the cut.
So even for me, we had a goodfollowing.
Uh, we were like I would noticemyself.
I have nine kids, fourcompanies, hundreds of employees
.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
And I had a moment to go look to see how a post was
performing.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
What a waste.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
What a waste.
What a waste of my life.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah, I was like, yes , that's how, that's what I want
for my kids.
Yeah, Because for me it's so.
It's easy for me to make changewhen I say like, okay, when I
look at my kid's life, I wantthem to stand on my shoulders.
Yes, so when I think of legacy,I'm thinking, okay, my kids,
I've done better than my dad,who struggled with addiction who
(23:28):
came from a really terriblefamily and he did the best he
could and I'm standing on hisshoulders.
But my kids now need to stand onmy shoulders and, in far
surpass me, um, be a lion, run,be able to change the change the
world in the kingdom thatthey're in.
Yeah, work hard, have grit andokay, if I want them to stand on
(23:49):
my shoulders and have a legacyand they're building their own
family, do are going to wastetheir time on social media or
just being on electronics aroundthere, because I mean that I
don't see that working out greatfor them.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, I think every parent probably wants their kids
to stand on their shoulders.
But I think a lot of parentstake the approach of I want them
to have an easier life than Ihad, and there's some things
that I want to be a little biteasier for my kids.
But honestly, because of thesuccess that Beck and I have
(24:25):
experienced, we actually arevery intentional to add in some
adversity to our kids' lives.
What's your take on that?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yeah, I mean like for me.
My whole life as a kid I didall the yard work for my mom,
mom and all the neighbors, andnow I have a yard guy.
So that's not a great picturefor my kids, Right.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
So it's like, okay, how do I intentionally teach
them how to do this Right?
So yeah, I mean we have amantra in our family and it's
actually this huge banner thatwe have in our gym and my kids
roll their eyes and we saycenters do hard things, centers
do hard things.
You got to dig deep, you got tolike it's got to suck.
(25:07):
So it starts off as simple asin the gym for us.
You need to bring your, becausebeing physical activity for any
young person to full exhaustionis reorients their mind.
For sure um.
Number two is they always haveto see like I can't be sitting
on the couch just not doinganything.
(25:27):
Uh, when the kids are all doingtheir chores, they need to see
an example.
So, uh, one of the other thingsthat is I have to be super
intentional with when I havesome level of success.
I may not have to, but I'm likeall right.
Hey, um, we were cleaning outone of our group homes.
I could have had our we have amaintenance department that
(25:49):
could do that.
But I said, hey, kids, we'regonna go clean this and I want
to clean that.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Oh no, not at all yeah, but guess what?
Speaker 2 (25:55):
we all went over there and we busted our butt and
sweat and we say, hey, there's,this is the center standard.
They clean it.
Is this the center standard?
No, like, we have to infusethat.
And I the only way to createadversity that I know, is I have
to honestly model it as theparent as well, and I can't.
I have to show them that itsucks for me, like when I'm
(26:17):
doing lunges and I went almostthroughout this morning.
Yeah, it sucks.
Yeah, they need, but those boysneed to see it that centers put
in hard work.
Yep, centers do hard thingsbecause it builds resilience and
builds grit for their life, andthey know that.
Then their bar is here.
When anxiety, the anxiousgeneration, their bar is super
(26:37):
low.
Anytime they're stressed out,they have a test coming up.
They think, oh, I have anxiety,I have to stop.
No, you just haven't had achance to have enough adversity
to know where your lid is.
Kids are much more resilientand resourceful than we give
them credit for and they have toput in that effort.
And they got to put in the work.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, it's so good.
So let's talk about raisinggodly, bold men and young men in
an anxious generations.
How are you helping your sonsdeal with anxiety, screen
addiction and culture's mixedmessages without raising them in
?
Speaker 2 (27:10):
fear.
Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Especially since I feel like, uh, you know,
masculinity has been uhdenigrated for probably 50 years
or so right I mean to the pointwhere if you hear masculinity,
it's almost synonymous withtoxic right and in in in the
bible.
God's intention for masculinityis anything but toxic.
(27:36):
It's kind of like when peoplesay servant, leader.
Like servant is part of leaderright Toxic is not part of
masculinity, like biblicalmasculinity, like it really is
the same thing.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Yeah.
So it's like, yeah, helping myboys understand that they are
called like as a man.
So it's like, yeah, helping myboys understand that they are
called like as a man.
They're actually called intoleadership.
Like this is part this is not a, this is just part of the way
God has designed you to do.
Like, yes, we serve, yes, welead, we step out front, we do
the hard thing first.
It can be as simple as we're upat, we're on our family
(28:18):
vacation in Cancun and we'regoing, we're snorkeling in the
jungle through this river andit's like the kids there are a
couple of the kids and theyounger ones were terrified and
even the boys were a little bitlike what's in there?
(28:39):
I'm like so I jump in and thekids jump in and they they're
thinking this is pretty cool.
And we're kind of snorkelingthrough and all of a sudden you
see all these storm clouds comerolling in.
We're deep in this jungle andthen you hear light, you see
lightning and the thunder'scoming.
You're like my heart's startingto race.
I'm like what the what are wegonna do?
And then I'm like kids swim.
So we are swimming full speedand the kids are just going
after it.
(29:00):
And I know my wife is holdingour grandson in a tube because
she gave up on the snorkel anhour and a half earlier.
So she's holding onto my leg asI'm trying to swim to get to
shore.
And then my other two boys areway out there ready to get to
shore.
And I'm like get your butt backthere and help out your little
brother and your little sister.
(29:20):
So it's like forcing them justlike oh hey, as young men we're
called to serve, it's not allabout ourselves.
Even when you want to survive,even when lightning is coming,
get back there.
And we got to go.
And then guess what I do?
I pump them up.
Dude, you saved your brother.
(29:41):
Oh you are the man High five andyou, like it pumps them up Like
, oh, you're doing the rightthing.
You know what I mean.
You're teaching your kids thatlike, hey, this is what I'm
designed to do.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, yeah, that's what you praise gets repeated
right.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I mean, you know this because you have hundreds of
employees, but a lot of times weforget that with our kids,
right yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
How do you help?
And our wife, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
How do you help instill confidence and boldness
into your boys Especially?
Once again, I feel likeconfidence and boldness are very
much looked down upon in ourculture, especially for boys.
We actually praise it in younggirls.
And I think as a rule, as ageneral rule yeah, boys should
be meek.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah, like, and that's like the exact opposite.
Yeah, it's uh, a lot of my kidsare in sports, um, so that's
for me that's an easy way tobuild confidence in them, but I
don't think that's always thebest place to do it.
Yeah, I don't want to defaultto that.
Yeah, because I have a of kidsthat are really athletic and the
other ones that are not, andthey're comparing themselves to
the other brothers and thatbecomes a thing.
(30:41):
But it's honestly whenever I seemy kids doing hard things that
I have to like pump it up.
Yeah, and it's when my kid whohas a little bit of special
needs he's praying in the circleDude.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
And I go up to him after dude.
That was the best prayer I'veheard in weeks.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
He's like man, that is awesome, like that's building
up confidence and it's likefinding those little moments I
always call him, like I tell itwith my kids, my staff, like we
have like these when we'rereinforcing behavior.
We have junk food compliments.
A lot of teachers we give kidsjunk food, like here's some
tortilla chips.
(31:19):
Oh, that's not good.
Yeah, it feels good in themoment but it doesn't sustain
you.
Like a burger would.
Junk food compliments hey, goodjob, way to go, nice work, like
for what?
Nice job for what?
Like that doesn't fulfill me.
It's like if I say to Kevin Ireally appreciate how
intentional you are as a, as ahusband and as a dad.
(31:41):
Yeah, I really see how youreally put effort into making
sure your boys are raised up tothe next level.
It hits different.
Yep, it's different.
It's different.
So, young, like our boys, weneed to be hyper-focused and
catch it right in the moment.
And we know this.
I think, we feel it, but Ithink, as men, especially boys,
need to hear it from their dadsor from male role models more
(32:02):
than anyone else, becausethere's always a place in the
heart for a 13 year old andtheir question that this boy is
asking themselves is am I enough, am I a man, am I good enough?
That is the longing of everyyoung man's heart.
Yeah, and the risk is that,come to the future, come when
they're 30 and 40 years old,they still don't know.
(32:23):
Am I enough?
Speaker 1 (32:25):
How important is it for men and young men to have
community with other lions?
You know I call them lions oreagles are kind of the two
animal analogies I use for thetype of men that I want to hang
out with.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Yeah, I mean yeah, cause you, uh, a dad, can kind
of speak into a kid's life inone way.
But it's so interesting and my,uh, my boys are doing an
internship.
Um, they're working in, uh, ourcompany and they're doing
maintenance and they go fix likeceiling fans in our homes or
fix.
My son came home yesterday hesaid I installed a, a faucet.
(32:59):
Heck, yeah, dude, that'sawesome, like, and I was super
intentional with who I put himwith.
Absolutely it was this one ofour techs who loves the lord,
works his butt off and uh couldspeak into him.
And guess what this guy says?
The same things I do, but they,you wouldn't believe what he
taught me today.
I'm like, dude, I've beentelling you this for six years,
(33:21):
you know, but it's so important,yeah, they need different
angles of it.
Yeah, I think as I've gottenolder and like maybe it's just
the sheer number of my kids Ihave to be so intentional of the
company I keep my kids as.
I have to be so intentional ofthe company I keep and I look at
their, their, their kids andhow they're they are as well,
(33:42):
and say like, hey, can we bringthem into our inner, inner
circle?
Because I need to continue tolike, let every moment be
building them up and notbreaking them down.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, I've noticed with my oldest son, who's 18, as
he has like starting to spendtime with some of my adult
friends outside of me.
How does that feel it's?
It's actually pretty darn coolbecause you know and I'm I'm
getting feedback from my friendsand it's just so cool because
it just you know he's hanging,hanging around with my friends
(34:14):
and it's just so cool because itjust you know he's hanging
hanging around with my friendsand I'm, like I said, very
particular about who I spendtime with.
So these are men that I trustand I know that the
conversations and just theconfidence you know I mean think
back to.
I mean, like I'm trying toremember, you know, hanging
around with any of my dad'sfriends.
I don't necessarily rememberdoing that, but if I did, I
(34:34):
think I would have felt prettydarn cool and very grown up.
I mean, you know my son's 18,so he's technically a grown up,
but just hanging out with youknow quality men on his own is
it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, they have.
My boy, one of my close friends, is uncle Gary, we call him,
and he's a firefighter, alsoowns a business, and I love when
one of my boys gets to talk tohim about firefighting because
I'm like I see so much of thatin him and getting that
one-on-one time with them ispriceless for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Yeah, all right, let's talk about family as a
kingdom team on mission.
You don't just run businesses,you run them with your family.
How do you view your entirehousehold as a team on mission?
You don't just run businesses,you run them with your family.
How do you view your entirehousehold as a team on a mission
, not just a collection ofindividuals?
Because I feel like, overall,the American family is really
just a bunch of individuals, youknow, with their noses buried
in their phones and electronics,that happen to have the same
(35:28):
last name and live under thesame roof.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, isn't that scary.
It in it and I think that's theway like we have produced it.
The american dream is like you,you do you, you you get to
become the most successfulversion of yourself.
Um, we will support it, um, butwe want everyone to just become
their, their best self.
Yep and I.
I just don't see that inscripture, I don't see that in
(35:51):
the Bible.
There's like, there is this,such, this honor of like having
a family legacy.
And as I and I think abouttoday's world is like it's too
hard to do this on your own.
It's too expensive, it's toostressful, there's too much
pressure.
How in the world could someonejust be totally isolated and
(36:11):
just do it on their own?
So for us, we think about ourfamily as like, hey, we have to
be doing this together, as ateam.
I even use the word teamlanguage because we're like a
family.
That's a team.
When I say a team, it's likewe're not just comfortable,
we're on a mission together.
Teams have a goal.
So us as the center's team, someof our values is to help expand
(36:35):
God's kingdom and help the mostvulnerable.
So for us, one of our missionsis that we help individuals with
disabilities.
So we'll host when we take allof our special needs individuals
to a summer camp.
We don't need to hire staff, wehave the staff.
It's my kids and the otherstaff's kids and they're there
(36:58):
to serve.
They host, they practice for thetalent show, they help serve
the food.
And whenever we talk about theend of summer, their highlight
of the summer, without a doubt,is not just, I mean, probably
going in the jungle and almostgetting electrocuted is a
highlight, right, but one of theother highlights is hey, when I
was talking to this guy who hasin one of our homes that has
(37:21):
disability, and I got him todance during our dance party,
dude, that was a win.
And when one of our youngpeople got baptized in the ocean
during our family vacation likethat, that, honestly, when
those words come out of my kidsmouth, when it's not about them
and it's about others, okay,we're doing the right, we're on
(37:42):
the right path here.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
And I'm like so I'm always as the dad, trying to
create moments where I can helpcreate a team atmosphere.
We were working togethertowards a goal.
Yeah, can help create a teamatmosphere.
We were working togethertowards a goal and I just
happened to use my businesses aslike I got limited time and
we're building assets togetheras a team, but like using that
as as a goal together.
(38:05):
It's like last week I'mwatching I take my two my
daughter and my son to oursenior care homes and we're
going to the home and we doactivities in the morning before
they take their lunch and takekind of a rest time.
And these they're mostvulnerable.
They have a lot of them havedementia, um, and we're playing
(38:28):
uno.
We got these massive uno cardsand that was pretty sweet, yeah,
uh.
But then afterwards I got bringmy microphone and our karaoke
machine.
I say hey, we're gonna do us uh, karaoke.
Uh, my, my mom, who helps outto keep the generations going,
she's like this is gonna be solame, ryan.
I'm like now it's awesome andall of a sudden, what happens is
we all the seniors get in acircle.
(38:51):
I have my daughter, my son,practicing sweet Sweet Caroline
in the car.
They barely know the song.
They're all nervous.
I got to use the mic, yeah, yougot to use the mic, and we
literally had to practice thesong four times.
We waited to go in the housebecause we got to practice two
more times.
Great, we get in the house.
They sing Sweet Caroline,everyone's loving it.
I had two elderly who arestaying in their rooms hear us
(39:17):
singing, come out and then, overand over again, they're passing
the mic to all the differentelderly and they're singing
these 1950s songs I have I haveno idea what these songs are but
I'm dancing with it, yeah.
And at the very end one of ourum, our caregivers, says to he
says, can I sing?
I'm like heck, yeah, he's fromthe Philippines and he says can
I sing Amazing Grace?
(39:37):
I was like, yes, let's do it.
So he starts singing AmazingGrace and it became church.
Everyone got quiet and I lookover and there's this elderly
woman at the end who has beenliving in this home for the last
year and a half with herhusband and her husband has
Alzheimer's and he just passedaway a month ago and I watched
(40:01):
tears streaming down her face ashe's singing Amazing Grace and
the song ends and I go up to herand my kids come near me and we
all pray for her, like on ourin.
We actually we never prayed inthe house before, but it was
just like a moment to do it.
And it was just one lady saidI've never had this older ladies
(40:24):
.
I've never had this feelingbefore.
I'm like it's because God'shere.
Yeah, he loves you very much.
Yeah, and my kids are like.
I felt like Jesus in theweirdest way.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
I'm like yes, you did .
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Yeah, and I'm like, I'm like those are moments
they're just like, hey, it'sjust being open to like to just
go be a team together and try toserve together.
And I'm always like, hey, howdo I create a opportunity for my
kids to experience God, to dohard things?
And then also like, if ithappens to help financially in
(40:58):
the future, that's great too.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
What would you say to people?
Because what you're talkingabout is marketplace ministry.
Right, you run these.
You run some nonprofit stuffand some for-profit stuff,
Exactly.
Do you feel bad, making aprofit not at all, and used to.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Okay, used to okay, I used to be like um, I used to
feel like it was a dirty word,yeah, but then I came like I
have to do well and do good.
Yes, and I have to.
Um, I have to be accountable,like god has called me to raise
up this family, and we have tomake sure, like this, this
continues on for a long time andI got to make sure that they,
(41:34):
yeah, work hard but we can.
It's not, it's not, it's notGod the ungodly to make money
Right, like God has given a giftof generosity and he needs
people to make money, to be alsoto be generous.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Yeah, Cause there's for any, just about anything
that anyone could do.
Yeah, there's going to be somepeople in it that really don't
care about the people they'reserving.
They're just there to make abuck, yeah.
And then there's going to beother people who could take your
approach.
You're like yeah, I'm here.
I mean you have to invest inthe homes and the training and
the staff.
Yes, Right, that costs yousomething.
(42:06):
And then you can say you knowwhat?
I'm going to maximize everyopportunity I have to love on
these people.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Yeah, and that's honestly why, like my wife and I
started a full, separatenonprofit.
We don't collect a dollar fromit.
We have two employees that workon it but it makes a huge
impact and for us we want todirect like, and guess who the
biggest donor is?
My wife and I and of thisnonprofit and we just help kids
(42:36):
who have aged out of foster caresystem.
They work at our restaurant,they work at our um.
We don't make a dollar fromthat.
All of it goes is help trainthese young people how to work
and have the skills to be ableto move forward in life.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
What's the name of that?
Speaker 2 (42:48):
nonprofit.
Uh, it's called friends ofOhana.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yep, and we have um a little, um little cafe in city
hall of Peoria, partnership withthe city, and uh, yeah, we have
a workforce development and wedo life launch there where the
kids come in um and do a day, uh, of learning not just resume
building and job skills, but howto have interpersonal skills.
You get the food handlers card,they get to learn how to make
(43:12):
coffee and then hopefully thatinspires them and then we end up
hiring a bunch of them to work,work there.
And some of the best baristasin Arizona are there and you
didn't.
No one knows that they aged outof foster care, yeah, but they
are.
My hope is that they end upbecoming the next general
manager or we help them launchtheir own coffee truck, and that
(43:34):
would be a really, really greatday.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Yeah and talk about there's a stigma for kids that
come out of the foster caresystem right, I mean very
similar to people who you knowserve their time in jail or
prison and then are trying tofind a job.
Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know the recent statistics.
On average in Arizona about 800kids age out of foster care
every year.
Age out means they have nofamily, no permanent support.
You're 18.
On your own On your own, like Icouldn't do that on my own.
And now, in today's world, howdo you do it?
So, and we know that badcompany corrupts good characters
(44:12):
.
So like, if they're around abunch of hard kids, they're just
they're going to follow alongwith that, but in reality is
like these are just kids thatsimply need direction and
purpose and someone to invest inthem, and they are some of the
most resourceful, um hungry kidsI've ever met.
(44:33):
So for us, like Sarah and I, aspart of our nonprofit, we've
committed just like how do wehelp train these young people up
to make a difference in theworld?
How do we teach them skills?
We have kids working in ourmaintenance department learning
trades, like and I want you tobe the best painter in the world
and you're 19 years old, whocares your age on foster care?
But guess what?
You're going to change yourfamily tree and you get to do
(44:55):
that.
So those are like, as we thinkabout it, we're like hey, how do
we as Christians, as our family, how do we change the family
tree for these people?
And how do we change?
It's changing society inmultiple generations and making
our culture better, and we justneed to give them these skills
and purpose to make it happen.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
So good, so good.
Let's talk about Friends ofOhana and the golf tournament.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Yes, dude, you're a golfer.
I know I am.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Yeah, I'm actually.
I didn't realize you had this,so I'm looking forward to
participating.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Yeah, so we have our, our annual, first annual.
We're just a little babynonprofit.
Okay, so it's our first annualum, uh, golf tournament, Uh, we
are.
Uh, all the money goes ahundred percent to our workforce
development so it helps kids,um, do these trade programs, do
our life launch program, andthen gets them into Hanai
(45:53):
working and supports themtowards independence.
So they have.
The kids are typically 18 to 21in the program and the golf
tournament September.
When is it September?
Speaker 1 (46:05):
And I'll put the link in the show notes as well.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
Yeah, it's in September.
Yeah, you'll have to check itout.
September 19th, yes, yes,september 19th.
Uh, yeah, you can check it out.
It's always called foster thefuture, okay, um, yeah, it's
going to be a great, great time.
We have, uh, paying donatedclubs, nice.
We have tons of great prizes,uh, food, drinks, all the things
(46:30):
so awesome very cool, very cool.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
Well, ryan, one of the things I've been doing is
this car cigars, guns andguitars, just kind of lighten it
up.
Four of my favorite manlytopics.
Uh, and I I also would add Ilove golf and I love poker, um,
but it just doesn't go with kindof the alliteration.
So, um, your favorite careither you have currently,
you've ever had, or maybe yourdream car, I, I love my truck.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
I love my truck.
Right now I have a um alightning f-150.
Okay, I think you were in frontof me, yeah, yeah, today you
were slow okay.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
No, you went the wrong direction.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Uh favorite cigar favorite, whatever one you buy
for me.
Okay, yeah, got it, you just.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
Yes, you're not picky , I'm not picky very good, very
good Favorite gun.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
I only own one gun.
It's a Glock 9mm.
Okay, so yeah, and I got itduring the 2020 years.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Yeah, you kind of had a target on your back, huh.
For whatever reason, you're acontroversial character, I guess
, so it's weird.
I mean you do so much good.
It's absolutely crazy.
Favorite guitar or guitarist Doyou play guitar?
Speaker 2 (47:32):
I do not play guitar, but I feel like I should being
in your podcast studio.
I like drinking a nice whiskeyon my porch listening to Chris
Stapleton.
That's as good as you're goingto get from me.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Very good.
No, that's it.
It's kind of a fun way to learnmore about our guests.
So how can people follow?
I know you're actually spendingvery little time on social
media, so do you have any linksto share at all, or a website?
Speaker 2 (48:00):
You can.
Yeah, you can go to our ournonprofit website,
ohanafriendsorg, to find outmore about our nonprofit.
That's our best way.
Yeah, you can follow me onLinkedIn.
I go on thereoccasionallyasionally, yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
Yeah, I find myself, uh, since I got kicked off of
Facebook, using LinkedIn moreand more, um, and I actually
like it, cause it's much lesstoxic than Facebook ever was.
So, yeah, um, you know, and Ijust want to invite people to
support Ohana Um.
Is that like, if people want tosupport your nonprofit work
you're doing with doing withfoster kids, what is the best
(48:36):
website for them to go to?
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Yeah, ohana, friendsorg is the best one.
Obviously, we have a tax credit.
We're because the five one Cthree and do a tax credit, but
we're super excited for the golftournament.
If you want to be a sponsor,we're looking for a couple more
corporate sponsors forbusinesses or just a foursome or
something like that, or afoursome or something like that
or a foursome okay income.
Uh, we have.
I think we have like 20 more,maybe like 10 more foursomes
(48:59):
okay available.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
Yeah, it'd be a fun, fun event okay, um, and I just
you know I definitely want toencourage beck and I aren't
currently supporting we have inthe past many times and love
what you guys do and you and Iare at lunch.
We're just talking about thefact that there's, you know,
there's some higher profilenonprofits that do great work.
We're not bashing them, butthey're high profile and it's
(49:21):
easy for them to generate, oreasier for them to generate.
They have the ability to rewardtheir donors at a level where
it's you almost sometimesquestion why are people giving?
And and yet you've got a simple, grassroots nonprofit like what
you guys have the reward forgiving to, something like Ohana.
(49:44):
Honestly, you're going to findon the other side of eternity
and in the stories I mean,you've shared some things with
me and they're incrediblyheartwarming experiences and
just, uh, you know, paychecks ofthe heart for investing in the
cool work that you guys aredoing.
Yeah, I mean one of our wellthank you.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
And, yeah, one of our uh, our brew crew baristas.
Um, yeah, she, just she cameover.
I was so excited to share withme from her paycheck, from
working hard and now is becomingthe assistant manager of Hanai,
saved up her own money to buyher first car and now she comes
in and that thing is so cleanand perfect and that is a real
(50:26):
like.
That is a moment for a youngperson to develop a sense of
confidence and pride andownership for herself.
Like that that lives on.
So I look at her coming in hercar and that she's done.
And that was through thenonprofit Cause we, we give coat
, uh, job coaches.
They have a lot of deficitssometimes when they're, they
(50:47):
don't have the skills and theydidn't have a parents to teach
them these things.
So we're coming alongside andhelp coaching them up and help,
yeah, reimburse the rate to makesure that they can, because we
can't, yeah, to help reimbursefor their hourly rate.
But watching her now have theskills to be able to do this and
(51:08):
the smile on her face, I'm likeall right, this is worth it.
It's changing your life, it'slike one kid at a time.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Well, ryan, thanks so much for making the long haul.
I know and for those who livein Phoenix.
We're on opposite corners ofthe greater Phoenix area and we
almost never venture into eachother's neighborhoods.
We'd spend a lot more timetogether if we lived closer.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
That's true.
I would wear a lot more tanktops if I was over here with you
.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
It is definitely my shirt of choice, my uniform of
choice.
But thanks so much.
You know I have tremendousrespect for you.
I appreciate what you're doing.
You know it takes a lot to.
You know, to invest, to start anonprofit, to start the
businesses you have.
It takes a lot of courage, alot of faith and you're taking
risk.
And those who can just donateand support honestly have the
(52:00):
easy job.
The ones who are doing the work, I think, have the much tougher
job.
But I'm just so grateful foryou because you're an uncommon
man who's intentionally raisinguncommon men and uncommon young
ladies and you're investing inso many kids and even investing
in the generation that's kind ofin, you know, the, the
generation that's kind of at theend of their life.
They're in the sunset, but youcan still make an impact.
So thanks so much for beinghere, bro.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
Appreciate it, thanks .
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