September 16, 2025 • 43 mins
Sharon Eubank is the Global Humanitarian Director for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since 1985, the organization has donated billions of dollars in assistance and millions of volunteer hours in 191 countries. Sharon often speaks in global settings, including the G-20 Interfaith Forum, Chatham House, and United Nations conferences on sustainable development. Her topics include early nutrition and literacy as the foundation of all other humanitarian interventions, the necessary power of interfaith networks, and volunteerism as an instrument of peace. Her commitment includes deep respect for people of many other faiths. Her hobbies include trying out homemade pie recipes, Wordle, and anything related to NASA’s James Webb telescope. Doing Small Things with Great Love is Sharon’s first book! Out NOw! goto Amazon!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, and welcome to a lot of help. It's for
two teas, Uh, James Lot Jr. And guess who I am.
I'm James Lott Jr. I'm a jj JLJ Media. I'm
hosting a life coach in five areas, professional organizer and
this media person all together and just a human And
I love, love, love when people are doing stuff for
(00:26):
other people. You guys know that all of course already,
but for me. But we have someone who does things
on a large scale at a small scale, and she's
sharing tips on how you Yes, you at home or
at work or wherever you are who are listening or
watching can also do some do some great stuff. We
have to we have to change the world. We're all
in this together. We're all swimming upstream together, folks. I mean,
(00:49):
like I believe that completely. You guys know that about me. Okay,
So the we read her, let me read her bio.
I'm trying to sign which bio want to read. They're
kind of because one has some fun, the one has
some fun of stuff at the end. All right, My
guest is the Global Humanitarian Director for the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Yes, since ninety eighty five.
(01:10):
The organization has donated billions of dollars in assistance and
millions of volunteer hours in one hundred and ninety one countries.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
People.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
She often speaks in global settings. Okay, this was just
the large thing we're talking about. That includes the G
twenty inter Faith Forum, Chatham House Just Think Correctly, and
United Nations Conferences on sustainable development.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Like that.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Some of the topics include early nutrition literacy. That's very
both are very important as the foundation of all other
humanitarian interventions.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
But also she also has some hobbies.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I think they are really good, because one I could
really enjoy I can't have anymore.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And that's how many pie recipes. I can't do pie anymore.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Really, she likes word on and anything related to NASA's
James Webb tell us, go, I like that. That's I
love that something different. I had a telescope when I
was a kid. When I was a kid. Help me
welcome the author of the book Doing Small Things with
Great Love. How everyday humanitarians are changing the world. Miss
sharing you banks you may.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Thank you so much. James.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
I'm so happy to be with you. This is a
fun program and I'm glad to come.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I'm very happy that you're here too. Thank you, and
I and I really want to start because in your book,
which first of all, congratulations on your book. Thank you
writing books people, I just can't wake up. And you know,
just you know, you got to put it together. You
gotta make sure you're saying something, to make sure it's
flows the whole thing. So you gave birth to this.
Uh So, first question is how do you feel.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
I never thought I was going to write a book,
and I never wanted to, but sometimes, you know, working
in the humanitarian setting, I see us make mistakes over
and over again out of good intentions, and I thought,
what if we could just tell some stories to people
ahead of time so that they would know a couple
important things. And so the book is just it's twelve
principles that it took me twenty eight years to learn.
(03:04):
And if people could start where I'm leaving off, it
would be great. So that's really what it is. And
the main idea is that you don't need to go
to Peru or the Philippines or someplace else. You are
powerful where you live and your community right where you
live needs you.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Oh my god, that's no and folks.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
That's what her book is and does, and it's in
alivenment with what I've been saying for the last twenty years.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I was taught Miss Sharon. I was taught by a.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Friend of mine, older friend of mine, wherever you live,
make sure you get involved. And I was like, twenty
years old, I'm like, but I'm partying. I to go
what are you talking about? And it's like, no, James,
you can do all that, but make sure wherever you
live you get involved. And she also said to me
(03:54):
local politics, local anything, local food, local home, local, everything
is actually more important because it's right there where you are. Again,
I had no idea, no clue with them at twenty
years old. I have learned since then, I have learned that,
and I've always been involved in my community. So that's
why I say that. So I love that you said
(04:16):
start local. And one of your chapters, want to talk,
I'll talk about this. It says you are the most
powerful where you live. So let's discuss that a little bit,
because I think people always think it's large thing.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I gotta go big. I go go big, but I
can't go big, it's too much.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
But you talk about you really talk about stuff from
this book about how you you really break it down.
But let's talk about that you are a most powerful
where you live. Where'd you come up with that?
Speaker 4 (04:48):
I myself had an experience that really taught me this.
So you know, I was out in a place called
Sri Lanka that's off the coast of India because a
huge tsunami.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Had gone through there in two thousand and four.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
And three d thousand people died and it was just
so devastating. But as I was there trying to help,
I was with a local guy who was being my translator,
and as we came to this place, a train had
been hit by the wave and a fifteen hundred people died.
And so all these families are camped around the train
because it's the last place they were with their kids,
(05:19):
and you know, they feel so much need, and they're
touching my arm and they're saying, I lost my husband,
I lost my baby, and I was paralyzed. I couldn't
do anything to them. I was working on houses, but
that was two miles away. I mean, who cares. They
don't care about that. But she who's driving with me,
you know, he goes out to our van and he
gets a little soccer ball and he pumps it up
(05:40):
and he starts kicking around the dirt with the kids
and they're showing him their tricks and he's showing him
some tricks and they start to relax and have a
good time. And then you know, one of the women
comes out. She says, Hey, that yeast you brought me. Look,
I'm baking bread, and she gives him a piece of bread.
And then another lady said, I need washing powder and
I can't find any. Can you help me? And he said,
I'm going to help you. And as I stood there
(06:01):
and I watched that whole thing, I realized, Shanta is
way more powerful in this situation than I am. Not
because I belong to a big organization that I have
a lot of, you know, budget, because he speaks the language,
because he understands the culture.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
And because he's there every day.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Because I'm going to go back to the place where
I live and he Shanta's there all the time. So
you know, that's a story about far away. But I
contrast that with a story I read in the newspaper.
It's in Hampton, Virginia. It's a title one school called
tarent You know, elementary and the principal said, all right,
before school starts, it's just you know this time of year.
(06:36):
She said, We're going to all get in a bus,
all of his teachers, and we're going to go out
to the neighborhood where we serve, and we're going to
go visit our students' homes and we're going to say, hey,
I'm your teacher, can't wait for you to come. Love
to meet your mother, your grandmother, your father. And so
they the teachers are like okay.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
So they go out into.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
That and there they are eating hot dogs in the
little you know, convenience store, and they're watching kids play
soccer in the backyard and that little thing.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
And it took them four hours.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
It made an enormous difference because they knew the people. Hey,
this is our neighborhood. We care about the kids, we
care about the school. And I think anybody, no matter
what you do for your living, you can connect better
with the people in your community and your service is better.
And I appreciate that about your podcast. You're trying to
find people in the community and talk about what they
(07:24):
do and make a connection. And I think more than
anything else, we are powerful because we can make a
local connection and I'd love to see more of that.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
I don't know, I personally, I don't know how.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I mean, even when you see devastation like that, I
just on a side note, I just don't know how
to keep it together because it's just I mean, I'm
a former nurse, so I've seen some stuff in boss
wolds and things like that, and you get trained how
to in front of them keep it together, and you
may fall apart aside in a corner.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You're talking about stuff that I have never experienced, so
I couldn't even imagine.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Know.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Bless you for going through that and making it through.
I can only say my my quick story would be
the La fires we just had in January. I had, uh,
I know a family uh that that they about thirteen
people have lost their homes. They have been moved there
as a community years ago. They all bought houses, they're
(08:22):
all cousins, and they all lost their homes. So what
I did, and I was, it wasn't even like I
I just I was like I wanted to help them.
So I mean, something came to my house and showered
and at that, but I was like they were displaced.
So I had said, for me, because I lived here,
my friends who were somewhere else with Saint James, what
can we do? And of course there was services. I go,
you know what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I am collecting money to buy gift cards, so gas cards,
food cards, delivering all these things, you know, cards to
like ross like things. I was thinking, they're gonna need gas,
they got their cards, gonna need gas, They're gonna need
clothes they lost on their clothes need So I was
collecting that people giving me. I mean just people were just.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Giving to you, but they're like, because you're there, I
know who directly needs it. That's what I did that.
I was saying, I cry crying every day. I was
crying every day, So I don't know how you gotta
die crde every day. But that was what I did
for that for that next month and a half.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Yeah, thank you for just saying I'm thinking about what
people need and I'm going to get involved. Rather than
when a big thing happens, especially like a disaster, it's
easy to say I don't know what to.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Do, and so we don't.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
We don't do anything, and people are always looking for
ideas and I hope that the book generates ideas. I
listed fifty things in the back that you know, if
you don't know how to start, try one of these
fifty things.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
That's yes, And that's what I'm saying, because this is
so great. You're actually naming stuff and telling people how.
Because it's it's people here, I should get involved. Okay,
I should volunteer. You hear those you hear that phrase,
you hear those words, but no one talks about, well, actually,
how just go down there and do that just fine
knowing the logistics of it. Or even if you're a
(10:01):
shy person, what if youre a person who's introverted? Right,
clearly I'm not so. I have a problem that many
people who are are people who just are get paralyzed.
A disaster or something happens, they go, I don't know
where to go, what to do. That's why your book
is so good and with this because you actually can
you tell stories. Plus you're also doing stuff. One of
(10:25):
the things is asking the right questions. Talk about that, please.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
I think it's so easy for us to see something
in our neighborhood or we see something on the news,
and we think in our minds.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Oh I know what they need.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
I'm going to assume that they need blankets, or they
need clothing, or they need, you know, something. We make
this assumption without ever asking them.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
What is it you really need?
Speaker 4 (10:49):
And that's so much of the mistakes made. And these
are terrible stories that I tell in the book. I
hated and I just hated it, but I want people
to know, so I I I recounted the story about
the Sandy Hook tragedy that happened in new Town, Connecticut,
and as people saw that around the country, they were
just emotionally moved. It was so tragic. And what happened
(11:12):
is in this little town of twenty seven thousand people,
people started sending things, things that they thought that they wanted,
and they got sixty five thousand teddy bears, sixty five
thousand in a town of twenty seven thousand people, and
a thousand of those bears were life size. So the town,
you know, it's a little town, they rented a big
warehouse and they started stacking up the stuff that people
(11:33):
sent them. It's eighty thousand square feet and it's stacked
eight feet high, and they they're trying to process their
emotions of what has happened, but they're every day they're
getting all these deliveries of things, and they had to
ask post office workers from other towns to come in
and help them manage some of this things. So although
it was the right thing, you know, it was an
(11:53):
empathetic thing that people did, we didn't take that first step,
which is what you talked about, Well, ask the question,
what's going on? What do you need? If I'm going
to send you something, what is it you really want?
And when it gets there, who should receive it? And
by the way, what time do you want it to come?
Do you want it to come right now? Do you
need it in a month? Do you need it six
months from now? And those are critical questions to be
(12:16):
able to ask. And sometimes we don't go that deep.
We feel the empathy, but we don't ask those questions,
and so in the end we do something that's burdens
some rather than helpful, even though we didn't mean.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
To got it.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Oh my god, it's this stuff when you were talking
about That's so it's all true and smart, yes, because
what you want to opening your thing was my solutions
to your problems will always be wrong. That's because I'm
very much because I've been in a flood, I've been
in a fire.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I've done both and I've lost things.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
So I personally, so I tell you at home, they personally,
what did you need? Now ask yourself the question what
did you need? Said to say, I'm buying some blenders
for people. I mean, like, yeah, shouldn't use a blender
at some point, but then plug it in my thing
im I just go off. My example was like in LA,
we're all car conscious, so I'm again they may have
(13:06):
to drive somewhere to a hotel. I don't have to drive.
Some I like to get food because they have no
place to live. That's a gasing expense around here. I
said gas cards, and the first thing I thought of,
that's what I would eat. So I just became I'm
trying to figure out my situation, what's going on. It'd
be nice I have to. And also I think part
of the helping process. And you can tell me if
(13:28):
this is true on your end, aren't we trying to
alleviate any extra added stress through their tough time?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Right?
Speaker 3 (13:38):
That's really true?
Speaker 4 (13:39):
And asking those questions about you know, when I was
in a flood, I needed gas cards. That's what was
important to me, Do you need gas cards or do
you need something else? And let them reply back to
you and tell you know, you know what's so important
and what you can help with. And it's so easy
to ask people what you need. But it's very easy
(14:00):
for us to just you know, go past that step
because we get so much energy.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
We're so excited now.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Also some when you talk about that, I had to
learn this recently. I had a roof claps in February.
My roof claps, so I had water just coming in
and I was like, it rains once a year in
La and that's when it happened during the rain. What
I've had to learn and you and in your book
you put what are you you asking the person? What
are you able to do yourselves?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
For me?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
On the other end of being the person who was
going through I don't say victims, I was going through stuff.
I had to learn that I actually also meet people
where they are not anybody was able. Everybody handles tragedies
or problems the same way.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Some people were good at I will pray for you.
I'll always take prayers, and prayers are always accepted in
this house. I will never turn one away girl, I
will be like, you know, keep the prayer. I'm fine, No,
I'll take prayers that comes in. You are like, I
will send you food to your house or I will
I know.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That's why he works at a hotel. I could.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
So I had to learn myself as a person, as
a recipient. Why want you to talk about as the
person who wants to do help? Talk about that a
little bit about it free you're trying to say, you
got to figure out you know what you what can you?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
What can you do? What are you able to do?
Speaker 4 (15:23):
There's a story that I learned about in West Virginia.
There was a women's shelter and the church congregation around there.
At Christmas, they said, well, we should do something over there.
So they gathered a bunch of presents and they made
stockings for the kids, and they went over there on
Christmas Eve and they gave all of those presents to
the kids and they were They loved it. The church
loved it because it felt so emotionally satisfying. The kids
(15:44):
were wildly happy. And the next year they come along
and they go, we want to we want to do
that again.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
That was so fun.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
And one of the women leaders said I didn't like
that project, and they're like, how can you not liked
that project? It was so great?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
She said.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
I saw the faces of the mom standing in the
back to the gym while their kids were unwrapping all
those presents, and we made them feel like failures because
they couldn't give you know, Christmas. They had to rely
on the church to come in and they couldn't do it.
She said, if we do this again, I want to
do it so that those women get to go to
some little store that we've stopped, pick out their own presence,
(16:18):
wrap those presents because that's what they can do. And
if they you know, if they work around the shelter
and get little tickets and they can go buy stuff
out of that store. Whatever, But let's make them be successful.
And that was the first time I realized everybody has
something that they can do, and we should honor the
things that they can do and not take that away
from them. That was that was a really important lesson
(16:38):
for me.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
God, I ain't tell it for until you framed it.
When you reframed it, like, oh my god, that makes sense.
That's because they feeling like they because they're any parent
wants to get their kids stuff for Christmas. Of course,
that's that's a basic thing we want to do. We
want to provide for Christmas. And when you can't do that,
that's just But that's that's a great way we've framing it.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I like that a lot because I'm trying to get
people to realize as they listen or watch this, whichever
way you're doing this, that everything is possible. And you
could be somebody who maybe doesn't have a car, but
you can still give I mean you, I mean we
have public trans station, I mean this, or you just
or you feel you have a lot of money, maybe
(17:17):
you don't have to give money, maybe you give time.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
You have time.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Right, that's the whole point is kind of like you
have to find you have to ask yourself those questions,
what can what what reals? Realistically can you do? But
aren't you also saying because it's small things that whatever
you can do still works.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Yeah, I'm a believer. Everybody has something to give. And
this if I'm the giver and you're the receiver, you're
also a giver and I'm a receiver. We're going to
do an exchange because James Lot has something I need
and Sharon you Bank has something you need and we're
going to exchange. So that doesn't mean that you know
you're the victim and I'm the provider. I don't believe
in victims. I believe every time we connect and we
(17:59):
do something, I get something out of it. You get
something out of it, makes us stronger. And we all
think it has to be money. But our presence, our time,
our prayers. I try to talk about those in the book.
We all have things. And for the uptight Norwegian background
that Sharon you Bank is, you know my friends that
can bring the fun, bring the food, bring the humor. Boy,
(18:20):
I count on that.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I need that.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Telling somebody who comes from several backgrounds, Creole background, you know,
Southern backgrounds.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I love food. Don't get me storted on that one.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
I always sact okay, I should have meant my earlier statement,
prayers and food are always accepted at my house. I
will not turn away any of those, neither of those.
I will not turn these away. That's that's very true.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
And you're right.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
I mean because in some cultures, some it's the food
that the loves and the food and bringing it over
to make sure you're nourished while you're going through something. Uh,
it's the I'll wash your clothes for you. I mean,
I want I'm with you. I want people to know
that I had to learn this myself, that not everybody
can just jump in. And that's it. It is again,
(19:09):
what can you do? You could do that? Okay, that
still works, that's still giving. You want to encourage you, well,
we don't want to discourage you from not doing anything right.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
That's the point.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
And there's some things that are fun all the time.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Food is one of them. Food isn't is.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
A It works across any culture. You know, we're going
to share food and we're gonna bless each other in
that way. Like you said, it's as important as prayer.
I think sports is another thing that's like that. I
think music is something to share. Those things we have
a lot in common, and so those are the easy
platforms that we can help each other.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah. I totally agree with that. And let me get
to my I my dog ears get in there. Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Now you also talk about volunteerism to social movements, so
you know there, So just that's that title alone. Listen
to a lot of different responses, I'm sure, and just saying,
so let's talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
So what do you mean in context of this book
and stuff? What do you mean by that?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
The head of Rotary international and Rotary is an interesting
organization because it started in Chicago by four business guys.
They belonged to different faiths and they had different professions,
but they wanted to understand each other better, so they
would rotate. That's how they got the name rotary to
each other's offices, and they just had a little discussion
and then they added service to it, and that's how
International Rotary started. But the head of International Rotary, their CEO,
(20:36):
is a man named John Huco, and he was speaking
in Australia and he said we should wage peace as
aggressively as a nation's wage war.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And I just really cut that.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
I like that he's talking about service is the way
that we become peacemakers and that we wage peace. And
if we're going to do that as aggressively as nations
wage war, we it can't just be something I just
think of every once in a while. We need an
organized campaign. So John Huco sits on the advisory council
for a thing called Just Serve it's a tool, it's free.
(21:09):
Anybody can use it. You open up justserve dot org
and you go into that app or that website. You
type in your zip code and all the service opportunities
in your in.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Your zip code come up.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
So you can look at that and say I'll do that.
I'll go over there. And it's a way for us
to post what we need and respond to what we
need as a community. And I just think it's it's
terrific and that that campaign to say I'm going to
wage peace, I'm going to put my sweat into it
or my time into it, I'm going to do something,
and here's a little tool that helps.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
That's great. That's a good one too. That's great. I
love that.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
I heard your program. You were talking to me and
Nyman about ways to contribute. You were talking about old
and young and you just got to start. And I
was thinking when I listened to that, just serve as
a good way of just starting. If you don't know
what to do, start scrolling through your zip code and
see what there is, and it'll give you an idea.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
That's a good idea. That's a really good idea. I mean,
I mean now, I mean I don't want exactly I
want I can sell. Okay, I'm gona. I say it's
because as a person who's a senior myself, I'm close
to sixty. It's the misconceptions we're not online. We're online
almost every senior, almost every senior or no as a
tablet or a phone, a smartphone now most right, so
(22:23):
you can you can?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
We can?
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I always say ask the kids and grandkids. My grandkid
like Papa Jami needs help, I hand the phone over,
can you do this for me? And they do it
for you. They can get you, they can help you
get on it, right. I mean I use them all that.
I love my grandchildren. I use it all the time.
There are extensions of my brain, the common brain. But
I'm saying that I want. I you know, on my
programs here we have taught j LJ Media has been
(22:47):
one of the places that's taught older people how to
go online, go on YouTube, learn how to go on YouTube,
subscribe to my channel and watch my programs. I mean, seriously,
over the last ten years we have you have helped
a whole generation come online. Then told me we were
never all lined before, we never how to do this.
It's not hard, right, Sharon, It's not hard, it's just
(23:09):
finding the right person. As about network too, in this book,
Megan your network together, but your negwork just could be
a grandchild or a nephew, or just a younger person
in your life if you claiming it. But I want
people to know at home, most of us have a
tablet or a phone or a laptop. We're not like
we're so out of it. But your lab people know
(23:29):
there are things on the innerwebs that you can't find.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
And I think we're in a really important place in
our country right now. Politically, we're kind of getting polarized.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
You know.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
People say, you don't worship like Ida, you don't vote
like Ida, you don't look like I do, and somehow
I can't have anything to do with you. And that's
just a fallacy. But we need a mechanism for us
to do things with each other. And the networks that
you promote, the networks that are around service, that's a
that's an even playing field. I don't care what you
look like, I don't care how you vote, I don't
care how you worship. We care about our community and
(24:03):
we're going to do something like that. We need more
of that and anything we can think of as an
individuals to bring our community better together is worth it.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
I oh just said my my channel, my motto is that.
So I just I just for me. I always say
all of us want the same four or five things,
no matter who we are. What the same for four
or five things and including a life that's livable. So
and we all live here together. I just I used
(24:31):
to say, you know, I don't know what neighbor does
next door. I like, I live with four million people.
I don't want to do. But when something goes down,
we do help each other. He's comfort, He's helped me out,
I'm helping him out. It's just that to me, it's
that that's just.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
We need.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
We need to get back to that on some level.
And I think, yes, we have our differences and everybody's
that there things. I get it and I understand. But
you said it's about worshiping. Yes, you got these Christians
saying you can't do these and this is we have
to let that all go and just say, okay, how
can we make our communities just better? You know, better streets, better,
this better that, you know, better schools. But why aren't
(25:08):
we just focusing on stuff like that, and when it
comes to people in need, is there's people in need everywhere, everywhere,
every turn, somebody in need. Why can't we come together
for that.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
You were talking about the fires in LA and we're
talking about the flood that you live through, and I
think we get galvanized by a physical thing that we
can see that happens in the neighborhood. But I think
it's important to realize too, you're gonna walk by somebody
on the street who's had a fire go through them
internally and they're just ashes right now, and they need somebody,
even though it doesn't show visibly, to reach out and
(25:40):
say what do you need?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
How can I help you?
Speaker 4 (25:42):
And that kind of connection, they'll never forget you. And
you know, if it's a death of somebody, if you're
going through cancer and your family, if there's emotional struggles,
if there's addictions, we can reach out to each other
on those kinds.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Of disasters just as well. But you've got to an individual,
the individual.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So I went just a quick little thing because I'm
going to piggyback off of that right now. One of
my guests years ago, this is like maybe ten years ago,
on my shows, said his view and the homeless changed
one day.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
You're in LA.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
We're driving in our our traffic field streets and he
said it was like peak rush hour time, like five
in the afternoon on a Friday, you know, everybody tried
to get out of the other jobs and downtown LA
and he was waiting in a light. All of a sudden,
the light turned green, but a homeless person decided to
(26:35):
walk slowly across the streets, and everybody was hawking and
cussing and all the suddy were doing. But he said,
in that moment, it's all you changed my life when
he said this, He said that moment he realized that
person's must be seen. That's why, that's why, that's why
it's in a weird way. Even whether he recognizes or
(26:55):
not that homeless person answer or not, he's saying, I'm
still here. We walked by them all the time, and
I was like, that changed my whole world on on
just the homeless. We don't know their story, but they're
right in our backyard and we're rushing to go to
our home. Not saying anything wrong with having a house
and being thanked together, but you know, a way it's
like I'm rushing to get home to do what, eat
(27:17):
the food on my tail that person doesn't have, and
live in a bed that that person now like. It
changed his whole outlook. And I think if more folks
did that, we be more. We be more in common
than you know, working together.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
We think. I love that story and changed my life.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
It was her that story, So I'm going to build
on that and just reveal myself. I work in a
high rise building downtown Salt Lake City, and every time
I walk in, but there's panhandlers, you know, that stand
around our building, and one of them she scares me
to death because she gets right in my face and
she says, help me, help me, help me, And you know,
I'm admitting to you. I go around the other side
of the building to go in because I don't want
(27:53):
I want to, I don't want to meet her.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
But I'm walking.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
I'm walking with one of my friends into the building,
and she know, she hits us right in the crosswalk.
And my friend, her name is Elizabeth. She said, Marilyn,
I haven't seen you in so long. I'm so happy
to see you. And all of a sudden, because I'm
up close to her, her face changes, she looks up
and they start having this discussion. She said, how are
you doing today? And she said, I saw.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
My kids walking to school today. I was, you know,
so happy.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
And suddenly she's interacting as a mother instead of a panhandler.
And I say, to my friend, how do you know her?
And she said, I met her in the street, just
like you. But she talks about how they she brought
her family downtown. They were there for some Christmas event
that she introduced them to Marilyn. And Marilyn says to them,
hold on, I have a Christmas present for you. And
(28:41):
she goes back to where she keeps her stuff and
she brings a little styrofoam container out and it's a
piece of red velvet cake that she had saved for
this family and that she wanted to give them as
a Christmas present because she was giving, you know, she
was the giver, not the receiver. And I all this
time have been avoiding Marilyn because I don't want to,
you know, be a cast. And and then I just said,
(29:02):
you know, there's a parable in the New Testament about
people like me who.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Want right, no, right, exactly right? Yes?
Speaker 4 (29:07):
And I learned something and you learned it too. They
want to be seen, they want to be recognized, they
want to be humanized.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I know your name, I.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
See you, and I think if that, if we can
just do that with people that we meet, there's a
lot of dignity just built into something like that.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
You mentioned dignity in your book two.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
I'll I'll pick back off that where that get and okay,
cause that a doctor in divinity, So I know, I
mean I but we are human. Sometimes we almost forget
or just set aside the things we've learned in the Bible, right,
this thing you just learn things. So there is a
homeless guy. I live next to an alley and he
walks up and down all the time. His name is Jeffrey.
(29:46):
And so it turns out after a year of me
giving him like cans and stuff. My brother, my brother
I lived in the same house. He's in the front
half of the back half. We do talk, I mean
like we do it. But one of he goes, this
is this guy named every I was giving like me too,
and we did not know we're each doing it in schedules. Hey,
I receeen him like I've seen it in a while. We
(30:07):
both got worried, and so I wed. But we saw
him recently, still out he's still out there. He's like hey,
and he's told and we At first you look at me,
he's a little scary looking, You're like, oh my god.
But then he but he's really sweet. It's like we
got I talked to him, like, how you doing, what's
going on? And he was like, yeah, it's a little
tough out he or whatever, but I give a few
buncks in once in a while. But like, but it
was my brother and I were doing at the same time.
(30:28):
Didn't know we were doing it. But because he was
human eyed, because I learned my lesson from that person.
From I said from that my guest, I was like, Okay,
one day he was walking by, I had some cans.
That's not give me something for that night or that day.
I give it to him. So it's kind of yeah,
I love story. I love stories like that. It's said,
we were human, We can, we get a little scared.
(30:49):
Sometimes they are a little scary sometimes you know, and
you know you just don't know. But we always forget that,
you know, you know, we're supposed to we're supposed to
give back, we're supposed to see people as human. We're
supposed to humanize people and try to do what we can, right,
That's that's the whole point of us being here, I think, right.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
Just the fact that you know Jeffrey's name and then
you can greet him by his name. A lot of
people who are unhoused, nobody says their name out loud,
and I think that's a that's a gift.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I know they don't. They're don't at all, And so
I believe that. But I believe in dignity. So I'm
always a big fan of that. But my stepfather was sick.
I was like, he was a marine, he was a
sorry Navy. He was a navy man and a cop.
And when he became incapacitated, my brother and I are like, no,
we're gonna give his dignity even though he's comeing capacitated. Hello, sir.
We said all that stuff until he passed, and I'm like,
I just believe in that completely. Call me old fashioned, folks.
(31:38):
I come from I come where you say miss so
and miss Sharon, you say mister So. I come from that.
I just I like, come from that. I got I
can talk to you forever, Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
So one of the things you talk about you.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Because in a book, you give the like you said,
you literally literally give the basics I said, you're giving stories,
given examples, You ask you people, you ask questions. At
the end of some of these chapters, people ask themselves
in questions. But I do want this, I kind of
want to go on this end. That's the end of
the conversation. Kind of trusted networks, because that can be tough.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Who do you trust? Who can be trusted, like literally trusted?
Who are you giving your time money to? Who are
you connecting with? Are they are they good to connect with?
Are they not?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Are they or are they in some places or not?
Hours when you can vet, you can vet all your
non problems. You can vet everything. Maybe you don't have
to write fit for certain things. How do you understand that?
So I just got to talk about that's talk about
trusted networks.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Thanks for asking me about trusted networks. To me, this
is one of the most important things that's going on
in our society. Because I bring this up in the book.
We've spent two trillion dollars in the last fifty years
trying to develop different parts of Africa, and the only
place that it works is when there's a network on
the ground of people who trust each other that won't
(33:06):
allow corruption, you know, to get into that, because otherwise
the money just siphons off, and it's our biggest fear
when we donate, it's our biggest fear. You know, different
things that that corruption ruins. It that the people it
was meant for, it never gets to those people. And
the only way to protect against that is to have
a group of people who are jointly holding each other
responsible for the outcome of whatever the money's supposed to do.
(33:29):
And that can be a big group. I mean, ideally
it would be a government, but it oftentimes isn't the government.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Most of the times, people locally on the ground.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
It's your HOA, it's your PTSA, it's your church group,
it's your book club, it's your running group. It's people
like that say hey, we're going to do something and
we trust each other. I trust James Lot, James Lott
trusts me, and I'm going to hold you accountable. When
you put money through a network, a trusted network like that,
it almost always does what it's supposed to do. So
(33:58):
instead worrying about the fun we ought to be worried
about how to build up those trusted networks and how
to get the ones that are good more resource so
that they can prove themselves.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yes, I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
So when I pay you back off the fire situation,
I printed out every time, so it gave me a
cash app or venmo.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
I had to print it out then I had it.
I showed them.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I showed them the gift cards I bought, like I
was very transparent about everything, and I said, your receipts
for your taxes all and stuff. So I did all
of that because I said, I really want people because aget.
I mean, it's just you know, they were being they
They didn't asked that from me. They trusted me because
they know me. Man of them know me. But I
just felt like, no, I want to make sure this
is legit, this is real. And also when you see
(34:38):
something tangible for yourself, just emotionally that you this money
you just gave me, bought this to help somebody else.
But I just I wanted people to trust me. I
don't want because to me, I always I teach my
grand my oldest grandson, we have a little money arrangement,
and so you have to pay you back this money
every month, and he does. And when there's times when
there's an issue, I'm like to call me and talk
(35:01):
to me about it.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
We work it out.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
So recently something came up and I was like, because
last three years you've been so good, your credit's good
with me, I would say, your credit's good with me,
So I'll let you love the slide because you called me,
you did what I asked, you're talking to me. We're fine.
It's like, oh, okay, I said, But that's I said.
That's the kind of the point when you don't. When
you build trust for people, great things can be accomplished
(35:26):
and slies slid or worked out when people can trust you.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
See, you gave evidence of your transparency with the receipts
and those things, so you you allowed people. They trust
you anyway, but you gave them evidence of that trustworthiness.
And and I think you brought up a good point
with your grandson. When there's a when there's a we
don't agree, the whole trusted network has different opinions. That's okay.
We should be able to work through some of those
(35:53):
things through communication. Because we don't want everybody to agree.
We want to bring out those those different opinions because
it makes the whole group stronger. Some people see things.
You see something different than your grandson, or he sees
something different than you, but you trust each other to
work it out.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
I still like you said that because I just I
just did a whole lecture at a company about that,
saying how the differences as a sports team.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I played sports. We just said that earlier.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
I played sports, and I said, you know how sports
taught me how to be an entrepreneur and.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
How to build a team.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Because in sports, you're all different from different household different upbringings,
differ and everything. You come together to play this sport
you love to win hopefully, but you have to work
as a team to get there. Sports like football, basketball,
base so you can't work alone. You have to meet
those kinds of sports. You have to work together. So
I said, when it comes to my volunteerism entrepreneurism, all
(36:47):
that I have teams where they see something that I
may have never thought of before. That helps my company,
that helps the team. It's like we're all cookie cutter clones.
I don't know how much further we we get, because
I mean, we may get far on some level, but
I need somebody else, She says, James, you ever thought
of this? No, they're thought of before, and it's and
(37:08):
it's and I'm like, I want to try that, you know,
I mean, there's some of there's somebody, somebody shows that
came to be here, were somebody else that I had
this idea, And I was like, if I was closed off,
or if he was the same person I was, or
she was the same as I was, that it wouldn't
be there were something. The ideas were so different. I
want to try. Let's try that. I trust you, Let's
(37:30):
try that. Bringing those two things together.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
You remind me of a story I know that. You
know that there were a lot of migrants coming from
Africa and they were showing up in Italy and then
they apply for asylum, but then they have to wait
for that to be judged upon, so they can't work,
they can't do anything. They're just sitting around and they're
causing a lot of trouble. They're fighting with each other.
They come from different places, different tribes, and there was
just a lot of conflict. So the Archbishop of Florence said, look,
(37:56):
we're gonna We're gonna invite these these asylum seekers to
be part of our football tournament.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
And they're like, no, that's not a good idea.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
They fight so much, and he said, no, we're going
to do it. So they got uniforms and they didn't
allow people from the same countries to be on the
same teams, so they had to be with people that
they didn't know, and they're all upset about that, but
then they start noticing each other's skills and hey, you're
pretty good. And through that little football league and they
interacted with the other Italian teams. Instead of being migrants,
(38:25):
they were a football team and they learned how to
play those skills together and it bonded them not only
themselves but also with the community. That was so powerful,
you know, just being able to say we have to
cooperate and.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
We're going to do it because we like playing football.
It's soccer, it's fun, and there was a way to
do that.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
And so you've experienced that, and I think it's we
ought to do more of that. Find activities where we
have to cooperate to make it work out.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yes, I agree, I want to ask you. I'm to
ask your personal question. Okay, but he's a personal question
with all this all humanitarianism. I think you've spoken in big,
big rooms, small rooms and all that. How has it No,
(39:11):
that's what it is, and what ways has it enriched
your life?
Speaker 4 (39:19):
When it works, it's the best feeling in the world.
It's better than a drug. I mean, you'll go back
to that over and over again.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
When it works.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
It's just so powerful to see people you know, change,
to see communities bond come together, see something great come
out of a tragedy. When it doesn't work, it's the
saddest part in the world. And a lot of my
personal inner life is kind of thinking when when things
(39:47):
haven't worked out, when I haven't been able to help
the way I want it, because you know, unforeseen things,
stuff happens.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
What do I do with that?
Speaker 4 (39:55):
And in some ways it's enriched me even more than
the success. Because I'm a woman of I work for
a Christian church, and I've had to go to God
and just say I can't solve this. I'm going to
trust you that scripture and James that the fervent prayer
of a righteous person avails much. I got to trust
in that because I can't do anything about this, and
(40:16):
I felt a divine assurance you know what you did,
what you can, I'll get the rest. And I have
to trust in God in those ways. And so in
those two ways, the success has enriched me. But the
failures also have enriched me in a way that has
built my faith.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Well, I was always say, there really is no failure.
Everything happens the way it's supposed to happen, right, and
you there's a lesson still and everything. And also in tragedy,
beauty can be born. Right, folks, I could talk to
with Sharon all day long. The book is called Doing
Small Things with Great Love. When this comes out, it
(40:53):
depends on when you watch this the book is out
or it's coming out, but it's just it's in September.
It's come by one hundred and fifteenth, right the fifteen sixteenth.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
The book's out on September sixteenth.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah, so depends like this this this show will be
evergreen will be out there. So it's gonna Harry Is
It's called doing this book right here if you're if
you're watching, here's the book covers. A beautiful book cover
Doing this Small Things a Great Love every day changing
the world.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
You have to run. You just go on your phone
or go where books are? You want to go to
a bookstore.
Speaker 4 (41:24):
Go to a bookstore, pull in your hand, enjoy the
pook in your hand.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
I like, I like books. I like fiscal media. I do.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
I just told it earlier, but it's a great book,
and I think we both are just encouraging. You read
the book, how you feel about it, and if you
haven't helped a while, or you've never done it before,
consider consider it. Consider doing something for your for something nearby,
(41:52):
and you just start small and seriously. And she she said,
it's a it's a natural high when someone thanks you
for something you've done. Right, It's something I was like,
there is a lot OF's. I was like her, Sharon,
you bank, where can they find you? If they want
to talk to you or see you or anything?
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Where can they find you?
Speaker 4 (42:12):
I really wrote this book not as the be all answer,
but just sort of to start a conversation because I'm
really interested in what people are doing.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
Then are experiences too.
Speaker 4 (42:20):
So if you want to join that conversation, you can
find me at Sharing you Bank, Underscore on Instagram, or
you can also use the hashtag small Things, Great Love.
But I'd love to hear more stories about what's important
to you and how you're using it.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Yes, and I'm following her, of course, but I will
put that underneath the the in the description, of course,
and me a lot of help dot com and where
it's two teas, not one to you. And he was like,
I spelled it. I can get you. It's I'm not
a parking lot. I am a lot aside the extra team.
That's why I tell people share all the time. But
it's a lot of help dot com where I have
(42:54):
a blog about every day and it's all stuff that's
that's positive and talking about life and real and real life.
I've been really enjoying the last year or so of
just expressing things I've learned and putting it out there
for people to digest and ingest. And thank you folks
who are reading the blog.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Also, I'm a certified life coach in several areas and
also have over ninety shows on this channel and a
lot of help is all about helping.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
And doing what we can.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
I will talk to you up here on every Tuesday
tuesdays we are hearing new episodes. I'll be back next week.
Thank you for Sharon, think you everybody. We'll see you
next time, thank you,
Hello, and welcome to a lot of help. It's for
two teas, Uh, James Lot Jr. And guess who I am.
I'm James Lott Jr. I'm a jj JLJ Media. I'm
hosting a life coach in five areas, professional organizer and
this media person all together and just a human And
I love, love, love when people are doing stuff for
(00:26):
other people. You guys know that all of course already,
but for me. But we have someone who does things
on a large scale at a small scale, and she's
sharing tips on how you Yes, you at home or
at work or wherever you are who are listening or
watching can also do some do some great stuff. We
have to we have to change the world. We're all
in this together. We're all swimming upstream together, folks. I mean,
(00:49):
like I believe that completely. You guys know that about me. Okay,
So the we read her, let me read her bio.
I'm trying to sign which bio want to read. They're
kind of because one has some fun, the one has
some fun of stuff at the end. All right, My
guest is the Global Humanitarian Director for the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Yes, since ninety eighty five.
(01:10):
The organization has donated billions of dollars in assistance and
millions of volunteer hours in one hundred and ninety one countries.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
People.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
She often speaks in global settings. Okay, this was just
the large thing we're talking about. That includes the G
twenty inter Faith Forum, Chatham House Just Think Correctly, and
United Nations Conferences on sustainable development.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Like that.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Some of the topics include early nutrition literacy. That's very
both are very important as the foundation of all other
humanitarian interventions.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
But also she also has some hobbies.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I think they are really good, because one I could
really enjoy I can't have anymore.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And that's how many pie recipes. I can't do pie anymore.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Really, she likes word on and anything related to NASA's
James Webb tell us, go, I like that. That's I
love that something different. I had a telescope when I
was a kid. When I was a kid. Help me
welcome the author of the book Doing Small Things with
Great Love. How everyday humanitarians are changing the world. Miss
sharing you banks you may.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Thank you so much. James.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
I'm so happy to be with you. This is a
fun program and I'm glad to come.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I'm very happy that you're here too. Thank you, and
I and I really want to start because in your book,
which first of all, congratulations on your book. Thank you
writing books people, I just can't wake up. And you know,
just you know, you got to put it together. You
gotta make sure you're saying something, to make sure it's
flows the whole thing. So you gave birth to this.
Uh So, first question is how do you feel.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
I never thought I was going to write a book,
and I never wanted to, but sometimes, you know, working
in the humanitarian setting, I see us make mistakes over
and over again out of good intentions, and I thought,
what if we could just tell some stories to people
ahead of time so that they would know a couple
important things. And so the book is just it's twelve
principles that it took me twenty eight years to learn.
(03:04):
And if people could start where I'm leaving off, it
would be great. So that's really what it is. And
the main idea is that you don't need to go
to Peru or the Philippines or someplace else. You are
powerful where you live and your community right where you
live needs you.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Oh my god, that's no and folks.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
That's what her book is and does, and it's in
alivenment with what I've been saying for the last twenty years.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I was taught Miss Sharon. I was taught by a.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Friend of mine, older friend of mine, wherever you live,
make sure you get involved. And I was like, twenty
years old, I'm like, but I'm partying. I to go
what are you talking about? And it's like, no, James,
you can do all that, but make sure wherever you
live you get involved. And she also said to me
(03:54):
local politics, local anything, local food, local home, local, everything
is actually more important because it's right there where you are. Again,
I had no idea, no clue with them at twenty
years old. I have learned since then, I have learned that,
and I've always been involved in my community. So that's
why I say that. So I love that you said
(04:16):
start local. And one of your chapters, want to talk,
I'll talk about this. It says you are the most
powerful where you live. So let's discuss that a little bit,
because I think people always think it's large thing.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I gotta go big. I go go big, but I
can't go big, it's too much.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
But you talk about you really talk about stuff from
this book about how you you really break it down.
But let's talk about that you are a most powerful
where you live. Where'd you come up with that?
Speaker 4 (04:48):
I myself had an experience that really taught me this.
So you know, I was out in a place called
Sri Lanka that's off the coast of India because a
huge tsunami.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Had gone through there in two thousand and four.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
And three d thousand people died and it was just
so devastating. But as I was there trying to help,
I was with a local guy who was being my translator,
and as we came to this place, a train had
been hit by the wave and a fifteen hundred people died.
And so all these families are camped around the train
because it's the last place they were with their kids,
(05:19):
and you know, they feel so much need, and they're
touching my arm and they're saying, I lost my husband,
I lost my baby, and I was paralyzed. I couldn't
do anything to them. I was working on houses, but
that was two miles away. I mean, who cares. They
don't care about that. But she who's driving with me,
you know, he goes out to our van and he
gets a little soccer ball and he pumps it up
(05:40):
and he starts kicking around the dirt with the kids
and they're showing him their tricks and he's showing him
some tricks and they start to relax and have a
good time. And then you know, one of the women
comes out. She says, Hey, that yeast you brought me. Look,
I'm baking bread, and she gives him a piece of bread.
And then another lady said, I need washing powder and
I can't find any. Can you help me? And he said,
I'm going to help you. And as I stood there
(06:01):
and I watched that whole thing, I realized, Shanta is
way more powerful in this situation than I am. Not
because I belong to a big organization that I have
a lot of, you know, budget, because he speaks the language,
because he understands the culture.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
And because he's there every day.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Because I'm going to go back to the place where
I live and he Shanta's there all the time. So
you know, that's a story about far away. But I
contrast that with a story I read in the newspaper.
It's in Hampton, Virginia. It's a title one school called
tarent You know, elementary and the principal said, all right,
before school starts, it's just you know this time of year.
(06:36):
She said, We're going to all get in a bus,
all of his teachers, and we're going to go out
to the neighborhood where we serve, and we're going to
go visit our students' homes and we're going to say, hey,
I'm your teacher, can't wait for you to come. Love
to meet your mother, your grandmother, your father. And so
they the teachers are like okay.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
So they go out into.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
That and there they are eating hot dogs in the
little you know, convenience store, and they're watching kids play
soccer in the backyard and that little thing.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
And it took them four hours.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
It made an enormous difference because they knew the people. Hey,
this is our neighborhood. We care about the kids, we
care about the school. And I think anybody, no matter
what you do for your living, you can connect better
with the people in your community and your service is better.
And I appreciate that about your podcast. You're trying to
find people in the community and talk about what they
(07:24):
do and make a connection. And I think more than
anything else, we are powerful because we can make a
local connection and I'd love to see more of that.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
I don't know, I personally, I don't know how.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I mean, even when you see devastation like that, I
just on a side note, I just don't know how
to keep it together because it's just I mean, I'm
a former nurse, so I've seen some stuff in boss
wolds and things like that, and you get trained how
to in front of them keep it together, and you
may fall apart aside in a corner.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You're talking about stuff that I have never experienced, so
I couldn't even imagine.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Know.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Bless you for going through that and making it through.
I can only say my my quick story would be
the La fires we just had in January. I had, uh,
I know a family uh that that they about thirteen
people have lost their homes. They have been moved there
as a community years ago. They all bought houses, they're
(08:22):
all cousins, and they all lost their homes. So what
I did, and I was, it wasn't even like I
I just I was like I wanted to help them.
So I mean, something came to my house and showered
and at that, but I was like they were displaced.
So I had said, for me, because I lived here,
my friends who were somewhere else with Saint James, what
can we do? And of course there was services. I go,
you know what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I am collecting money to buy gift cards, so gas cards,
food cards, delivering all these things, you know, cards to
like ross like things. I was thinking, they're gonna need gas,
they got their cards, gonna need gas, They're gonna need
clothes they lost on their clothes need So I was
collecting that people giving me. I mean just people were just.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Giving to you, but they're like, because you're there, I
know who directly needs it. That's what I did that.
I was saying, I cry crying every day. I was
crying every day, So I don't know how you gotta
die crde every day. But that was what I did
for that for that next month and a half.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Yeah, thank you for just saying I'm thinking about what
people need and I'm going to get involved. Rather than
when a big thing happens, especially like a disaster, it's
easy to say I don't know what to.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Do, and so we don't.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
We don't do anything, and people are always looking for
ideas and I hope that the book generates ideas. I
listed fifty things in the back that you know, if
you don't know how to start, try one of these
fifty things.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
That's yes, And that's what I'm saying, because this is
so great. You're actually naming stuff and telling people how.
Because it's it's people here, I should get involved. Okay,
I should volunteer. You hear those you hear that phrase,
you hear those words, but no one talks about, well, actually,
how just go down there and do that just fine
knowing the logistics of it. Or even if you're a
(10:01):
shy person, what if youre a person who's introverted? Right,
clearly I'm not so. I have a problem that many
people who are are people who just are get paralyzed.
A disaster or something happens, they go, I don't know
where to go, what to do. That's why your book
is so good and with this because you actually can
you tell stories. Plus you're also doing stuff. One of
(10:25):
the things is asking the right questions. Talk about that, please.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
I think it's so easy for us to see something
in our neighborhood or we see something on the news,
and we think in our minds.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Oh I know what they need.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
I'm going to assume that they need blankets, or they
need clothing, or they need, you know, something. We make
this assumption without ever asking them.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
What is it you really need?
Speaker 4 (10:49):
And that's so much of the mistakes made. And these
are terrible stories that I tell in the book. I
hated and I just hated it, but I want people
to know, so I I I recounted the story about
the Sandy Hook tragedy that happened in new Town, Connecticut,
and as people saw that around the country, they were
just emotionally moved. It was so tragic. And what happened
(11:12):
is in this little town of twenty seven thousand people,
people started sending things, things that they thought that they wanted,
and they got sixty five thousand teddy bears, sixty five
thousand in a town of twenty seven thousand people, and
a thousand of those bears were life size. So the town,
you know, it's a little town, they rented a big
warehouse and they started stacking up the stuff that people
(11:33):
sent them. It's eighty thousand square feet and it's stacked
eight feet high, and they they're trying to process their
emotions of what has happened, but they're every day they're
getting all these deliveries of things, and they had to
ask post office workers from other towns to come in
and help them manage some of this things. So although
it was the right thing, you know, it was an
(11:53):
empathetic thing that people did, we didn't take that first step,
which is what you talked about, Well, ask the question,
what's going on? What do you need? If I'm going
to send you something, what is it you really want?
And when it gets there, who should receive it? And
by the way, what time do you want it to come?
Do you want it to come right now? Do you
need it in a month? Do you need it six
months from now? And those are critical questions to be
(12:16):
able to ask. And sometimes we don't go that deep.
We feel the empathy, but we don't ask those questions,
and so in the end we do something that's burdens
some rather than helpful, even though we didn't mean.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
To got it.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Oh my god, it's this stuff when you were talking
about That's so it's all true and smart, yes, because
what you want to opening your thing was my solutions
to your problems will always be wrong. That's because I'm
very much because I've been in a flood, I've been
in a fire.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I've done both and I've lost things.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
So I personally, so I tell you at home, they personally,
what did you need? Now ask yourself the question what
did you need? Said to say, I'm buying some blenders
for people. I mean, like, yeah, shouldn't use a blender
at some point, but then plug it in my thing
im I just go off. My example was like in LA,
we're all car conscious, so I'm again they may have
(13:06):
to drive somewhere to a hotel. I don't have to drive.
Some I like to get food because they have no
place to live. That's a gasing expense around here. I
said gas cards, and the first thing I thought of,
that's what I would eat. So I just became I'm
trying to figure out my situation, what's going on. It'd
be nice I have to. And also I think part
of the helping process. And you can tell me if
(13:28):
this is true on your end, aren't we trying to
alleviate any extra added stress through their tough time?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Right?
Speaker 3 (13:38):
That's really true?
Speaker 4 (13:39):
And asking those questions about you know, when I was
in a flood, I needed gas cards. That's what was
important to me, Do you need gas cards or do
you need something else? And let them reply back to
you and tell you know, you know what's so important
and what you can help with. And it's so easy
to ask people what you need. But it's very easy
(14:00):
for us to just you know, go past that step
because we get so much energy.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
We're so excited now.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Also some when you talk about that, I had to
learn this recently. I had a roof claps in February.
My roof claps, so I had water just coming in
and I was like, it rains once a year in
La and that's when it happened during the rain. What
I've had to learn and you and in your book
you put what are you you asking the person? What
are you able to do yourselves?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
For me?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
On the other end of being the person who was
going through I don't say victims, I was going through stuff.
I had to learn that I actually also meet people
where they are not anybody was able. Everybody handles tragedies
or problems the same way.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Some people were good at I will pray for you.
I'll always take prayers, and prayers are always accepted in
this house. I will never turn one away girl, I
will be like, you know, keep the prayer. I'm fine, No,
I'll take prayers that comes in. You are like, I
will send you food to your house or I will
I know.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That's why he works at a hotel. I could.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
So I had to learn myself as a person, as
a recipient. Why want you to talk about as the
person who wants to do help? Talk about that a
little bit about it free you're trying to say, you
got to figure out you know what you what can you?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
What can you do? What are you able to do?
Speaker 4 (15:23):
There's a story that I learned about in West Virginia.
There was a women's shelter and the church congregation around there.
At Christmas, they said, well, we should do something over there.
So they gathered a bunch of presents and they made
stockings for the kids, and they went over there on
Christmas Eve and they gave all of those presents to
the kids and they were They loved it. The church
loved it because it felt so emotionally satisfying. The kids
(15:44):
were wildly happy. And the next year they come along
and they go, we want to we want to do
that again.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
That was so fun.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
And one of the women leaders said I didn't like
that project, and they're like, how can you not liked
that project? It was so great?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
She said.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
I saw the faces of the mom standing in the
back to the gym while their kids were unwrapping all
those presents, and we made them feel like failures because
they couldn't give you know, Christmas. They had to rely
on the church to come in and they couldn't do it.
She said, if we do this again, I want to
do it so that those women get to go to
some little store that we've stopped, pick out their own presence,
(16:18):
wrap those presents because that's what they can do. And
if they you know, if they work around the shelter
and get little tickets and they can go buy stuff
out of that store. Whatever, But let's make them be successful.
And that was the first time I realized everybody has
something that they can do, and we should honor the
things that they can do and not take that away
from them. That was that was a really important lesson
(16:38):
for me.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
God, I ain't tell it for until you framed it.
When you reframed it, like, oh my god, that makes sense.
That's because they feeling like they because they're any parent
wants to get their kids stuff for Christmas. Of course,
that's that's a basic thing we want to do. We
want to provide for Christmas. And when you can't do that,
that's just But that's that's a great way we've framing it.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I like that a lot because I'm trying to get
people to realize as they listen or watch this, whichever
way you're doing this, that everything is possible. And you
could be somebody who maybe doesn't have a car, but
you can still give I mean you, I mean we
have public trans station, I mean this, or you just
or you feel you have a lot of money, maybe
(17:17):
you don't have to give money, maybe you give time.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
You have time.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Right, that's the whole point is kind of like you
have to find you have to ask yourself those questions,
what can what what reals? Realistically can you do? But
aren't you also saying because it's small things that whatever
you can do still works.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Yeah, I'm a believer. Everybody has something to give. And
this if I'm the giver and you're the receiver, you're
also a giver and I'm a receiver. We're going to
do an exchange because James Lot has something I need
and Sharon you Bank has something you need and we're
going to exchange. So that doesn't mean that you know
you're the victim and I'm the provider. I don't believe
in victims. I believe every time we connect and we
(17:59):
do something, I get something out of it. You get
something out of it, makes us stronger. And we all
think it has to be money. But our presence, our time,
our prayers. I try to talk about those in the book.
We all have things. And for the uptight Norwegian background
that Sharon you Bank is, you know my friends that
can bring the fun, bring the food, bring the humor. Boy,
(18:20):
I count on that.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I need that.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Telling somebody who comes from several backgrounds, Creole background, you know,
Southern backgrounds.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I love food. Don't get me storted on that one.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
I always sact okay, I should have meant my earlier statement,
prayers and food are always accepted at my house. I
will not turn away any of those, neither of those.
I will not turn these away. That's that's very true.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
And you're right.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
I mean because in some cultures, some it's the food
that the loves and the food and bringing it over
to make sure you're nourished while you're going through something. Uh,
it's the I'll wash your clothes for you. I mean,
I want I'm with you. I want people to know
that I had to learn this myself, that not everybody
can just jump in. And that's it. It is again,
(19:09):
what can you do? You could do that? Okay, that
still works, that's still giving. You want to encourage you, well,
we don't want to discourage you from not doing anything right.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
That's the point.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
And there's some things that are fun all the time.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Food is one of them. Food isn't is.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
A It works across any culture. You know, we're going
to share food and we're gonna bless each other in
that way. Like you said, it's as important as prayer.
I think sports is another thing that's like that. I
think music is something to share. Those things we have
a lot in common, and so those are the easy
platforms that we can help each other.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah. I totally agree with that. And let me get
to my I my dog ears get in there. Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Now you also talk about volunteerism to social movements, so
you know there, So just that's that title alone. Listen
to a lot of different responses, I'm sure, and just saying,
so let's talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
So what do you mean in context of this book
and stuff? What do you mean by that?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
The head of Rotary international and Rotary is an interesting
organization because it started in Chicago by four business guys.
They belonged to different faiths and they had different professions,
but they wanted to understand each other better, so they
would rotate. That's how they got the name rotary to
each other's offices, and they just had a little discussion
and then they added service to it, and that's how
International Rotary started. But the head of International Rotary, their CEO,
(20:36):
is a man named John Huco, and he was speaking
in Australia and he said we should wage peace as
aggressively as a nation's wage war.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And I just really cut that.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
I like that he's talking about service is the way
that we become peacemakers and that we wage peace. And
if we're going to do that as aggressively as nations
wage war, we it can't just be something I just
think of every once in a while. We need an
organized campaign. So John Huco sits on the advisory council
for a thing called Just Serve it's a tool, it's free.
(21:09):
Anybody can use it. You open up justserve dot org
and you go into that app or that website. You
type in your zip code and all the service opportunities
in your in.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Your zip code come up.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
So you can look at that and say I'll do that.
I'll go over there. And it's a way for us
to post what we need and respond to what we
need as a community. And I just think it's it's
terrific and that that campaign to say I'm going to
wage peace, I'm going to put my sweat into it
or my time into it, I'm going to do something,
and here's a little tool that helps.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
That's great. That's a good one too. That's great. I
love that.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
I heard your program. You were talking to me and
Nyman about ways to contribute. You were talking about old
and young and you just got to start. And I
was thinking when I listened to that, just serve as
a good way of just starting. If you don't know
what to do, start scrolling through your zip code and
see what there is, and it'll give you an idea.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
That's a good idea. That's a really good idea. I mean,
I mean now, I mean I don't want exactly I
want I can sell. Okay, I'm gona. I say it's
because as a person who's a senior myself, I'm close
to sixty. It's the misconceptions we're not online. We're online
almost every senior, almost every senior or no as a
tablet or a phone, a smartphone now most right, so
(22:23):
you can you can?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
We can?
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I always say ask the kids and grandkids. My grandkid
like Papa Jami needs help, I hand the phone over,
can you do this for me? And they do it
for you. They can get you, they can help you
get on it, right. I mean I use them all that.
I love my grandchildren. I use it all the time.
There are extensions of my brain, the common brain. But
I'm saying that I want. I you know, on my
programs here we have taught j LJ Media has been
(22:47):
one of the places that's taught older people how to
go online, go on YouTube, learn how to go on YouTube,
subscribe to my channel and watch my programs. I mean, seriously,
over the last ten years we have you have helped
a whole generation come online. Then told me we were
never all lined before, we never how to do this.
It's not hard, right, Sharon, It's not hard, it's just
(23:09):
finding the right person. As about network too, in this book,
Megan your network together, but your negwork just could be
a grandchild or a nephew, or just a younger person
in your life if you claiming it. But I want
people to know at home, most of us have a
tablet or a phone or a laptop. We're not like
we're so out of it. But your lab people know
(23:29):
there are things on the innerwebs that you can't find.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
And I think we're in a really important place in
our country right now. Politically, we're kind of getting polarized.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
You know.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
People say, you don't worship like Ida, you don't vote
like Ida, you don't look like I do, and somehow
I can't have anything to do with you. And that's
just a fallacy. But we need a mechanism for us
to do things with each other. And the networks that
you promote, the networks that are around service, that's a
that's an even playing field. I don't care what you
look like, I don't care how you vote, I don't
care how you worship. We care about our community and
(24:03):
we're going to do something like that. We need more
of that and anything we can think of as an
individuals to bring our community better together is worth it.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
I oh just said my my channel, my motto is that.
So I just I just for me. I always say
all of us want the same four or five things,
no matter who we are. What the same for four
or five things and including a life that's livable. So
and we all live here together. I just I used
(24:31):
to say, you know, I don't know what neighbor does
next door. I like, I live with four million people.
I don't want to do. But when something goes down,
we do help each other. He's comfort, He's helped me out,
I'm helping him out. It's just that to me, it's
that that's just.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
We need.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
We need to get back to that on some level.
And I think, yes, we have our differences and everybody's
that there things. I get it and I understand. But
you said it's about worshiping. Yes, you got these Christians
saying you can't do these and this is we have
to let that all go and just say, okay, how
can we make our communities just better? You know, better streets, better,
this better that, you know, better schools. But why aren't
(25:08):
we just focusing on stuff like that, and when it
comes to people in need, is there's people in need everywhere, everywhere,
every turn, somebody in need. Why can't we come together
for that.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
You were talking about the fires in LA and we're
talking about the flood that you live through, and I
think we get galvanized by a physical thing that we
can see that happens in the neighborhood. But I think
it's important to realize too, you're gonna walk by somebody
on the street who's had a fire go through them
internally and they're just ashes right now, and they need somebody,
even though it doesn't show visibly, to reach out and
(25:40):
say what do you need?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
How can I help you?
Speaker 4 (25:42):
And that kind of connection, they'll never forget you. And
you know, if it's a death of somebody, if you're
going through cancer and your family, if there's emotional struggles,
if there's addictions, we can reach out to each other
on those kinds.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Of disasters just as well. But you've got to an individual,
the individual.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So I went just a quick little thing because I'm
going to piggyback off of that right now. One of
my guests years ago, this is like maybe ten years ago,
on my shows, said his view and the homeless changed
one day.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
You're in LA.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
We're driving in our our traffic field streets and he
said it was like peak rush hour time, like five
in the afternoon on a Friday, you know, everybody tried
to get out of the other jobs and downtown LA
and he was waiting in a light. All of a sudden,
the light turned green, but a homeless person decided to
(26:35):
walk slowly across the streets, and everybody was hawking and
cussing and all the suddy were doing. But he said,
in that moment, it's all you changed my life when
he said this, He said that moment he realized that
person's must be seen. That's why, that's why, that's why
it's in a weird way. Even whether he recognizes or
(26:55):
not that homeless person answer or not, he's saying, I'm
still here. We walked by them all the time, and
I was like, that changed my whole world on on
just the homeless. We don't know their story, but they're
right in our backyard and we're rushing to go to
our home. Not saying anything wrong with having a house
and being thanked together, but you know, a way it's
like I'm rushing to get home to do what, eat
(27:17):
the food on my tail that person doesn't have, and
live in a bed that that person now like. It
changed his whole outlook. And I think if more folks
did that, we be more. We be more in common
than you know, working together.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
We think. I love that story and changed my life.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
It was her that story, So I'm going to build
on that and just reveal myself. I work in a
high rise building downtown Salt Lake City, and every time
I walk in, but there's panhandlers, you know, that stand
around our building, and one of them she scares me
to death because she gets right in my face and
she says, help me, help me, help me, And you know,
I'm admitting to you. I go around the other side
of the building to go in because I don't want
(27:53):
I want to, I don't want to meet her.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
But I'm walking.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
I'm walking with one of my friends into the building,
and she know, she hits us right in the crosswalk.
And my friend, her name is Elizabeth. She said, Marilyn,
I haven't seen you in so long. I'm so happy
to see you. And all of a sudden, because I'm
up close to her, her face changes, she looks up
and they start having this discussion. She said, how are
you doing today? And she said, I saw.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
My kids walking to school today. I was, you know,
so happy.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
And suddenly she's interacting as a mother instead of a panhandler.
And I say, to my friend, how do you know her?
And she said, I met her in the street, just
like you. But she talks about how they she brought
her family downtown. They were there for some Christmas event
that she introduced them to Marilyn. And Marilyn says to them,
hold on, I have a Christmas present for you. And
(28:41):
she goes back to where she keeps her stuff and
she brings a little styrofoam container out and it's a
piece of red velvet cake that she had saved for
this family and that she wanted to give them as
a Christmas present because she was giving, you know, she
was the giver, not the receiver. And I all this
time have been avoiding Marilyn because I don't want to,
you know, be a cast. And and then I just said,
(29:02):
you know, there's a parable in the New Testament about
people like me who.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Want right, no, right, exactly right? Yes?
Speaker 4 (29:07):
And I learned something and you learned it too. They
want to be seen, they want to be recognized, they
want to be humanized.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I know your name, I.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
See you, and I think if that, if we can
just do that with people that we meet, there's a
lot of dignity just built into something like that.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
You mentioned dignity in your book two.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
I'll I'll pick back off that where that get and okay,
cause that a doctor in divinity, So I know, I
mean I but we are human. Sometimes we almost forget
or just set aside the things we've learned in the Bible, right,
this thing you just learn things. So there is a
homeless guy. I live next to an alley and he
walks up and down all the time. His name is Jeffrey.
(29:46):
And so it turns out after a year of me
giving him like cans and stuff. My brother, my brother
I lived in the same house. He's in the front
half of the back half. We do talk, I mean
like we do it. But one of he goes, this
is this guy named every I was giving like me too,
and we did not know we're each doing it in schedules. Hey,
I receeen him like I've seen it in a while. We
(30:07):
both got worried, and so I wed. But we saw
him recently, still out he's still out there. He's like hey,
and he's told and we At first you look at me,
he's a little scary looking, You're like, oh my god.
But then he but he's really sweet. It's like we
got I talked to him, like, how you doing, what's
going on? And he was like, yeah, it's a little
tough out he or whatever, but I give a few
buncks in once in a while. But like, but it
was my brother and I were doing at the same time.
(30:28):
Didn't know we were doing it. But because he was
human eyed, because I learned my lesson from that person.
From I said from that my guest, I was like, Okay,
one day he was walking by, I had some cans.
That's not give me something for that night or that day.
I give it to him. So it's kind of yeah,
I love story. I love stories like that. It's said,
we were human, We can, we get a little scared.
(30:49):
Sometimes they are a little scary sometimes you know, and
you know you just don't know. But we always forget that,
you know, you know, we're supposed to we're supposed to
give back, we're supposed to see people as human. We're
supposed to humanize people and try to do what we can, right,
That's that's the whole point of us being here, I think, right.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
Just the fact that you know Jeffrey's name and then
you can greet him by his name. A lot of
people who are unhoused, nobody says their name out loud,
and I think that's a that's a gift.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I know they don't. They're don't at all, And so
I believe that. But I believe in dignity. So I'm
always a big fan of that. But my stepfather was sick.
I was like, he was a marine, he was a
sorry Navy. He was a navy man and a cop.
And when he became incapacitated, my brother and I are like, no,
we're gonna give his dignity even though he's comeing capacitated. Hello, sir.
We said all that stuff until he passed, and I'm like,
I just believe in that completely. Call me old fashioned, folks.
(31:38):
I come from I come where you say miss so
and miss Sharon, you say mister So. I come from that.
I just I like, come from that. I got I
can talk to you forever, Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
So one of the things you talk about you.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Because in a book, you give the like you said,
you literally literally give the basics I said, you're giving stories,
given examples, You ask you people, you ask questions. At
the end of some of these chapters, people ask themselves
in questions. But I do want this, I kind of
want to go on this end. That's the end of
the conversation. Kind of trusted networks, because that can be tough.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Who do you trust? Who can be trusted, like literally trusted?
Who are you giving your time money to? Who are
you connecting with? Are they are they good to connect with?
Are they not?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Are they or are they in some places or not?
Hours when you can vet, you can vet all your
non problems. You can vet everything. Maybe you don't have
to write fit for certain things. How do you understand that?
So I just got to talk about that's talk about
trusted networks.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Thanks for asking me about trusted networks. To me, this
is one of the most important things that's going on
in our society. Because I bring this up in the book.
We've spent two trillion dollars in the last fifty years
trying to develop different parts of Africa, and the only
place that it works is when there's a network on
the ground of people who trust each other that won't
(33:06):
allow corruption, you know, to get into that, because otherwise
the money just siphons off, and it's our biggest fear
when we donate, it's our biggest fear. You know, different
things that that corruption ruins. It that the people it
was meant for, it never gets to those people. And
the only way to protect against that is to have
a group of people who are jointly holding each other
responsible for the outcome of whatever the money's supposed to do.
(33:29):
And that can be a big group. I mean, ideally
it would be a government, but it oftentimes isn't the government.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Most of the times, people locally on the ground.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
It's your HOA, it's your PTSA, it's your church group,
it's your book club, it's your running group. It's people
like that say hey, we're going to do something and
we trust each other. I trust James Lot, James Lott
trusts me, and I'm going to hold you accountable. When
you put money through a network, a trusted network like that,
it almost always does what it's supposed to do. So
(33:58):
instead worrying about the fun we ought to be worried
about how to build up those trusted networks and how
to get the ones that are good more resource so
that they can prove themselves.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yes, I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
So when I pay you back off the fire situation,
I printed out every time, so it gave me a
cash app or venmo.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
I had to print it out then I had it.
I showed them.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I showed them the gift cards I bought, like I
was very transparent about everything, and I said, your receipts
for your taxes all and stuff. So I did all
of that because I said, I really want people because aget.
I mean, it's just you know, they were being they
They didn't asked that from me. They trusted me because
they know me. Man of them know me. But I
just felt like, no, I want to make sure this
is legit, this is real. And also when you see
(34:38):
something tangible for yourself, just emotionally that you this money
you just gave me, bought this to help somebody else.
But I just I wanted people to trust me. I
don't want because to me, I always I teach my
grand my oldest grandson, we have a little money arrangement,
and so you have to pay you back this money
every month, and he does. And when there's times when
there's an issue, I'm like to call me and talk
(35:01):
to me about it.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
We work it out.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
So recently something came up and I was like, because
last three years you've been so good, your credit's good
with me, I would say, your credit's good with me,
So I'll let you love the slide because you called me,
you did what I asked, you're talking to me. We're fine.
It's like, oh, okay, I said, But that's I said.
That's the kind of the point when you don't. When
you build trust for people, great things can be accomplished
(35:26):
and slies slid or worked out when people can trust you.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
See, you gave evidence of your transparency with the receipts
and those things, so you you allowed people. They trust
you anyway, but you gave them evidence of that trustworthiness.
And and I think you brought up a good point
with your grandson. When there's a when there's a we
don't agree, the whole trusted network has different opinions. That's okay.
We should be able to work through some of those
(35:53):
things through communication. Because we don't want everybody to agree.
We want to bring out those those different opinions because
it makes the whole group stronger. Some people see things.
You see something different than your grandson, or he sees
something different than you, but you trust each other to
work it out.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
I still like you said that because I just I
just did a whole lecture at a company about that,
saying how the differences as a sports team.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I played sports. We just said that earlier.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
I played sports, and I said, you know how sports
taught me how to be an entrepreneur and.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
How to build a team.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Because in sports, you're all different from different household different upbringings,
differ and everything. You come together to play this sport
you love to win hopefully, but you have to work
as a team to get there. Sports like football, basketball,
base so you can't work alone. You have to meet
those kinds of sports. You have to work together. So
I said, when it comes to my volunteerism entrepreneurism, all
(36:47):
that I have teams where they see something that I
may have never thought of before. That helps my company,
that helps the team. It's like we're all cookie cutter clones.
I don't know how much further we we get, because
I mean, we may get far on some level, but
I need somebody else, She says, James, you ever thought
of this? No, they're thought of before, and it's and
(37:08):
it's and I'm like, I want to try that, you know,
I mean, there's some of there's somebody, somebody shows that
came to be here, were somebody else that I had
this idea, And I was like, if I was closed off,
or if he was the same person I was, or
she was the same as I was, that it wouldn't
be there were something. The ideas were so different. I
want to try. Let's try that. I trust you, Let's
(37:30):
try that. Bringing those two things together.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
You remind me of a story I know that. You
know that there were a lot of migrants coming from
Africa and they were showing up in Italy and then
they apply for asylum, but then they have to wait
for that to be judged upon, so they can't work,
they can't do anything. They're just sitting around and they're
causing a lot of trouble. They're fighting with each other.
They come from different places, different tribes, and there was
just a lot of conflict. So the Archbishop of Florence said, look,
(37:56):
we're gonna We're gonna invite these these asylum seekers to
be part of our football tournament.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
And they're like, no, that's not a good idea.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
They fight so much, and he said, no, we're going
to do it. So they got uniforms and they didn't
allow people from the same countries to be on the
same teams, so they had to be with people that
they didn't know, and they're all upset about that, but
then they start noticing each other's skills and hey, you're
pretty good. And through that little football league and they
interacted with the other Italian teams. Instead of being migrants,
(38:25):
they were a football team and they learned how to
play those skills together and it bonded them not only
themselves but also with the community. That was so powerful,
you know, just being able to say we have to
cooperate and.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
We're going to do it because we like playing football.
It's soccer, it's fun, and there was a way to
do that.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
And so you've experienced that, and I think it's we
ought to do more of that. Find activities where we
have to cooperate to make it work out.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yes, I agree, I want to ask you. I'm to
ask your personal question. Okay, but he's a personal question
with all this all humanitarianism. I think you've spoken in big,
big rooms, small rooms and all that. How has it No,
(39:11):
that's what it is, and what ways has it enriched
your life?
Speaker 4 (39:19):
When it works, it's the best feeling in the world.
It's better than a drug. I mean, you'll go back
to that over and over again.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
When it works.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
It's just so powerful to see people you know, change,
to see communities bond come together, see something great come
out of a tragedy. When it doesn't work, it's the
saddest part in the world. And a lot of my
personal inner life is kind of thinking when when things
(39:47):
haven't worked out, when I haven't been able to help
the way I want it, because you know, unforeseen things,
stuff happens.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
What do I do with that?
Speaker 4 (39:55):
And in some ways it's enriched me even more than
the success. Because I'm a woman of I work for
a Christian church, and I've had to go to God
and just say I can't solve this. I'm going to
trust you that scripture and James that the fervent prayer
of a righteous person avails much. I got to trust
in that because I can't do anything about this, and
(40:16):
I felt a divine assurance you know what you did,
what you can, I'll get the rest. And I have
to trust in God in those ways. And so in
those two ways, the success has enriched me. But the
failures also have enriched me in a way that has
built my faith.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Well, I was always say, there really is no failure.
Everything happens the way it's supposed to happen, right, and
you there's a lesson still and everything. And also in tragedy,
beauty can be born. Right, folks, I could talk to
with Sharon all day long. The book is called Doing
Small Things with Great Love. When this comes out, it
(40:53):
depends on when you watch this the book is out
or it's coming out, but it's just it's in September.
It's come by one hundred and fifteenth, right the fifteen sixteenth.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
The book's out on September sixteenth.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah, so depends like this this this show will be
evergreen will be out there. So it's gonna Harry Is
It's called doing this book right here if you're if
you're watching, here's the book covers. A beautiful book cover
Doing this Small Things a Great Love every day changing
the world.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
You have to run. You just go on your phone
or go where books are? You want to go to
a bookstore.
Speaker 4 (41:24):
Go to a bookstore, pull in your hand, enjoy the
pook in your hand.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
I like, I like books. I like fiscal media. I do.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
I just told it earlier, but it's a great book,
and I think we both are just encouraging. You read
the book, how you feel about it, and if you
haven't helped a while, or you've never done it before,
consider consider it. Consider doing something for your for something nearby,
(41:52):
and you just start small and seriously. And she she said,
it's a it's a natural high when someone thanks you
for something you've done. Right, It's something I was like,
there is a lot OF's. I was like her, Sharon,
you bank, where can they find you? If they want
to talk to you or see you or anything?
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Where can they find you?
Speaker 4 (42:12):
I really wrote this book not as the be all answer,
but just sort of to start a conversation because I'm
really interested in what people are doing.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
Then are experiences too.
Speaker 4 (42:20):
So if you want to join that conversation, you can
find me at Sharing you Bank, Underscore on Instagram, or
you can also use the hashtag small Things, Great Love.
But I'd love to hear more stories about what's important
to you and how you're using it.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Yes, and I'm following her, of course, but I will
put that underneath the the in the description, of course,
and me a lot of help dot com and where
it's two teas, not one to you. And he was like,
I spelled it. I can get you. It's I'm not
a parking lot. I am a lot aside the extra team.
That's why I tell people share all the time. But
it's a lot of help dot com where I have
(42:54):
a blog about every day and it's all stuff that's
that's positive and talking about life and real and real life.
I've been really enjoying the last year or so of
just expressing things I've learned and putting it out there
for people to digest and ingest. And thank you folks
who are reading the blog.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Also, I'm a certified life coach in several areas and
also have over ninety shows on this channel and a
lot of help is all about helping.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
And doing what we can.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
I will talk to you up here on every Tuesday
tuesdays we are hearing new episodes. I'll be back next week.
Thank you for Sharon, think you everybody. We'll see you
next time, thank you,
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