Beards on the Street
Parry Ward and Aaron Pehrson, two Real Estate agents in Salt Lake City, Utah, with a team at Century 21 Everest called "The Luxury Agency". Beards on the Street is two seasoned agents chatting about Life Experiences, Love, Family, Friends and of course the Utah Real Estate Market conditions. Parry and Aaron primarily focus on a system coined "My Top 50" based around showing up for the people in there sphere consistently and with purpose.
Beards on the Street
Beards On The Street - Episode 32 - Real Estate Revelations and Seasonal Celebrations: Warming Hearts with Thanksgiving Heroes and Motorcycle Community Outreach
Feeling that autumn chill? We sure did at our Thanksgiving Heroes Coat Drive Mixer, an evening that warmed bodies and hearts alike as we gathered donations for those in need. Our conversation today ignites with the lively and humorous Rob Adams, whose transformation from a post-Peru fitness journey to founding Thanksgiving Heroes is nothing short of inspiring. With Rob's story setting the stage, we offer an episode rich with laughter and stories that dive into not just physical health and well-being, but the health of our communities through acts of kindness and generosity.
From the humble beginnings of feeding ten families to now reaching thousands, our episode travels through the intricate dance of logistics involved in large-scale food distribution. We unwrap the layers of community support that make such an effort possible, sharing personal accounts that reveal the profound emotional landscape of giving and receiving. It's not just about the food; it's about hope, love, and the unexpected places support can spring from. Through these narratives, we portray the transformative effect of charitable work and the importance of fostering connections that extend beyond a single act of generosity.
Revving up with tales from our unique motorcycle network, we explore the camaraderie and entrepreneurial spirit that fuels our members. Meanwhile, I'll open up about lessons learned from my military service and how these experiences have shaped my approach to charity and community outreach. You'll get to ride shotgun on this journey of meaningful connections and the unyielding power of giving without expectations. So, buckle up for a trip through the heart of what it means to be a Thanksgiving Hero.
Hey, hey, hey, morning, morning people. How's everybody doing this fine, fine day?
Speaker 2:Good morning man, Good morning. See how pretty it is out this morning, guys.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful, beautiful November weather.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been nice all week. Man it's, you know. You wake up and it's chilly. In the mornings I had frost on my windshield, but not much. And then you know, by the afternoon you got the AC cranking.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I rode my motorcycle yesterday. It was great, did you? Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't say so.
Speaker 1:we've got a special guest on today that we're going to get to here in just a minute, but Mr Rob Adams. He's the founder and the brains and the motivation behind the heart, behind Thanksgiving heroes. So hats off to you, brother. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:You're a freaking stud dude. Well, I'll take that I'm trying to receive those compliments more rather than a shock.
Speaker 2:You look at the studlier and studlier. Fyi.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're pretty ripped for an old guy.
Speaker 3:For a senior citizen. You're going all right.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:I've been putting in the work. You're old bastard. When you get old it matters. You know, when you're young it's easy. So I'm feel good.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Down 38 pounds since February.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too no he says no 38 pounds. I haven't seen that side of the scales for quite some time I went to Peru.
Speaker 3:I spent a month in Peru in February and the food is so much different there, so much healthier. You know, I just started dropping weight in a quick hurry and there's no soda down there.
Speaker 1:I don't drink soda, unless there's maybe some whiskey in it, right, Me too, me too.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah. And so I just started peeling off and I'm like, wow, this really feels good. So when I got home, I had kind of gotten some momentum and it was easier to do than just being like it's time to lose some weight, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that whole, thing, yeah, but Peru.
Speaker 3:Oh, that was cool. It was amazing. We were down in the Amazon jungle up in the Andes and got to spend a gosh three and a half weeks with a shaman down there. Did you do that?
Speaker 1:I was kind of like, oh, dang it. So did you did you bring back any bugs or worms or any of that kind of stuff? Is that part of the weight loss?
Speaker 3:That's the tapeworm Montezuma's revenge. That's a real thing. I did, that did happen.
Speaker 1:Oh see, that's what makes me nervous about those kind of places.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was a real thing, but it was amazing. I would recommend doing it if you have the chance. Cool Three weeks Cool.
Speaker 2:Cool. Three weeks Wow. Deep diving, deep dive, wow, cool. I actually want to talk more about that. Let's talk about it. We will. We will.
Speaker 1:So everybody we had our mixer last night with our coat drive Just want to shout out that if you do have some cold weather stuff that you would like to donate, get with Aaron or myself and we're all over it. I know my truck's full of stuff, your truck's full of stuff. We want to just get as much, as much as we can and get it to these people that are in need of it. So go ahead and reach out to one of us. But anyways, the mixer man it was. It was a lot of fun, it really was. I've got Shauna and Carrie up on there right now. Here's big bad daddy Dean I don't know if you saw that picture Good old A A Ron and his family. So yeah, it was a successful night, I think. I think that people had a good time and we just hung out. And last night I don't know dude it was it seemed very cozy, for lack of a better word.
Speaker 2:I actually really liked the midway. They do a good job of hosting us and they did and they were all over it.
Speaker 1:I mean, as far as menus and getting people their drinks and whatnot, and thank you midway for hosting that, that was very, very cool and all successful. Love it, love it, love it. As always, I'm going to shout out and tell everybody that we really, really, really would appreciate it if you would jump on our Facebook page or, excuse me, not Facebook but YouTube and subscribe to this lovely program that we put on every Friday morning at 10 am. We're trying to build our subscriptions and I'm really I'm kind of stoked, aaron, because, as you know, I recently hired my son to start doing some social media, social media right.
Speaker 1:So I mean this kid's so amazing at it, and I mean that past business they had rightly Royce. I mean they built that up to thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of subscribers and such a good cause.
Speaker 2:But I'm excited dude, I'm really stoked to see where this, where this goes.
Speaker 1:So hopefully, hopefully, you guys will start seeing a lot more of me and and professional stuff being thrown out there to promote, promote Big Daddy Dean. All right, man, let's get into it. I'm ready to talk to Rob. This guy's such a cool cat. We've we've had multiple conversations over the years with you, and what year did you start this? Thanksgiving, heroes, and this is our ninth year night that we're doing that.
Speaker 3:So, whatever the math is on, that is when we started, yeah, so maybe what I should do if you're 15, 15,.
Speaker 1:Wow, if you're not familiar with Thanksgiving heroes, what it is, guys, is is is Rob put together, but basically people donate food of all kinds and money and money to buy food. Money, money is a big, a big big thing and I'm going to throw it up here a few times during this. But there's a QR code, guys. Let's help this guy out. Click on or hit that QR code and and let's get this guy some money, because he just said when he walked in here that all the recipients of of these foods. So what they do is they take them basically a week's worth of food.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 65 pounds of food delivered right to their front 65 pounds of food that are delivered directly to people in need, and how many people are you delivering to this year?
Speaker 3:3,100 families, so that's 15,000 plus people.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that is amazing. It's amazing. All in one day we're going to do how the hell, do you store all that we?
Speaker 2:don't.
Speaker 3:This is the amazing part the food comes at four o'clock in the morning, four thirty in the morning, when you're rolling out of bed, we're unloading. There's 17 to 20, 43 foot truckloads. We unload 197,000 pounds of groceries. We sort it, we box it and then you come through, we load it in the back of your car and a way ago we're usually done by about two oh my gosh. Amazing, it's a machine.
Speaker 1:It is a machine.
Speaker 3:Did you guys hear that it's not?
Speaker 2:just here, it's taught how many states. What are you seeing?
Speaker 3:Cleveland, phoenix, las Vegas, dallas, growing, growing. We're going to be in North Carolina, we're just starting out there, so a lot of states just popping up.
Speaker 1:And that's all under your umbrella.
Speaker 2:I got to see day one of this and incredible man.
Speaker 3:What do you remember? What do you remember?
Speaker 2:about it. I just remember the buzz in our office. I remember there I mean it was you, but there was, I think, eight or nine friends in the office that that all kind of screwed around trying to help and put this on and I, I don't know. Talk to us about that, talk to us about how it started.
Speaker 3:Well, I had that goal to feed 10 families. Like when did it start? Like when did it start? Like the way back, when did it start?
Speaker 2:Like well, I remember, I remember 15 when you did it. I remember that. Did you guys hear that?
Speaker 1:His goal in the very beginning was 10 families, 10 families. That was it.
Speaker 3:Say again how many families you're delivering to in Utah, 3,100 families across the United States will be around 11,000 families. 11,000 times five people is the average family size. It's just a huge. It's a huge effect. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:I literally had no clue that this thing was that big it's.
Speaker 3:I'm incredulous when I say it out loud, like I can't believe that it is growing the way that it has. That is amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, I knew you were a freaking stud, bro, but holy cow, thank you, thank you very much, and the thing is is that I've just been lucky, that I've been surrounded by people that are smarter than I am, that are more dynamic in the organizational areas, that are doing things that help make my job easier. I've been really blessed with a great team of people on my board, people in other states and it's grown despite me, despite my best efforts, because I get a lot of ego in there and I'll get it backwards in my head. I've done my best to ruin this organization with my personality and my. It's about me, it's not about me, and when I get that out of the way, when I get the money and the ego out of the way, it really grows like crazy because it's not about me. It's about the opportunity to serve, it's about the opportunity to create significance in the community. It's about hope and love and connection all of the things that we totally need right now, and it all started with 10 families.
Speaker 3:It started with one family.
Speaker 2:Actually, this cat right here Do you have a story like one that sticks out, that you served. That you served. That really has impacted you, that you think?
Speaker 3:about so many. Can I share two?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd love to hear.
Speaker 3:The first one was the very first year I was doing things. There was an address up in Pepperwood and if you don't know where Pepperwood is, that's the what buzzed through the gate to get in.
Speaker 2:Yeah Okay, pretty fancy neighborhood.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like one of the nicest neighborhoods in our valley Back then especially. Yeah, it was the place to be and I drove in and I lived in Taylor'sville at the time in a little split entry home built in 1967. Pretty fancy.
Speaker 2:I went to a Christmas party there.
Speaker 3:Yes, you did. Yeah, it was awesome Great house, but nothing like Pepperwood. Right as I was driving through the neighborhood, I thought to myself these guys should be delivering to me what am?
Speaker 2:I doing here these guys.
Speaker 3:They've got it going on. And we pulled up to the house and I went in with a box and I had this chip on my shoulder, like these guys are playing the system. This is not okay. I was kind of mad. They opened up the door. No furniture in the whole house, no food in the fridge, nothing.
Speaker 2:The dad had got cancer and they were basically just waiting down, waiting down until they were getting kicked out of the house Selling things, getting Jordan's selling their house oh my gosh, they had lost everything, and so my lesson that year was you don't know, yeah, you don't know who's.
Speaker 1:You don't know what shoes they're walking.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then hopefully that really threw away my predetermined what my demographic or the people that I serve look like, because you never know.
Speaker 2:And then the second thing was Think about the humility of those people accepting that.
Speaker 3:You know that is something interesting. Accepting is one of the hardest things that I've learned about. Not everyone accepts the gift. I don't accept compliments very well. They don't accept food very well. Accepting is a talent and you go to something that's not hard, it's a humility.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is a humility, it's a mercy, some people are.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of shame involved and there's a lot of humility that needs to happen on both sides the delivering side and the receiving side. The script that I give the delivery people, because invariably they're always asked what who nominated me? And the answer I want them to say is is someone in the community must love you very much. I don't know who nominated you.
Speaker 1:What a perfect answer, dude.
Speaker 3:Someone must love you very much in order to think of you. Sorry, skip yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I want them to enjoy the food and have a great Thanksgiving, but then I want them to walk out their front door and be like was it Perry that nominated me? Was it Aaron? I want them to be looking for the good, because now we've planted the seed that someone in the community, someone loves it just love them very much yeah.
Speaker 3:And that's how it works. So you're building up for just someone who is meeting a lot of this current racism, right? This family serving families, that love and opportunity and also get rid of hopelessness. I, we were so broke and Someone took care of us and it really changed my whole mindset, changed my life. And what if somebody, some kid like me, grows up and they want to do something like this when they grow up? That's the, that's the legacy, right? Yeah?
Speaker 2:so that's awesome dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah freaking amazing.
Speaker 3:The second one, and this is the one thing that I want to talk about. We mentioned money right out of the gate, and groceries cost 28% more, but every year my first year was the first example I needed X number of dollars to feed 20 more families. This teacher called in like right under the clock and she's like I've got these families. I thought I nominated them. They didn't get on. Can you feed them still? And I'm like I don't have the money. If I had the money I would happily do it, but I am dead, flat out Out. I have spent every penny, which we do. Every penny goes to the groceries. That day I got a check for the exact amount that would feed those families.
Speaker 3:Wow, straight, a miracle happens every year, and I'm not I'm not a guy that throws around miracles, like that word very often, because that's that's yeah, god interacting with me making this. It's a big deal. Every year a miracle happens. Someone will show up with just the right amount of money, just in the right time. Someone will show up and they'll have just the right Connection, and so it's just like I've gotten in the way of miracles, this miracle making machine. I'm like downtown Right now waiting for this miracle to happen and see these things unfold every year, wow, humble me, dang dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, you have created some really special, cool, cool, right, yeah, we're gonna come and help deliver and Hang out and be a part. I love it.
Speaker 3:Well, when you pull in, I'll throw these three boxes in the back of your car, 65 pounds of food each, and you get to go deliver it right to the families. If you have kids, bring them. This is a family friendly event, yes, and I want these kids to go from entitlement to gratitude right before the holidays. It changes your whole season and it becomes quite the tradition. The something that's interesting about it is it's become kind of a pay-up forward culture. The people that are coming now are people that I served Eight years ago Wow who were broken. That's true. That's why I continue doing it.
Speaker 3:The second year I wasn't gonna do it. I don't know if you remember this, aaron. It was like a one and done kind of an opportunity. I got a phone call from the single mom she's just like last year right before the holidays, my husband left me and my two daughters and it was pay rent or buy food, and you guys showed up right on the the buy food, the buy food decision period and Changed our holidays. And now this year we want to. We want to do it. Where are you guys doing it? And I had no intention of doing it again. The second year I said 533 families.
Speaker 3:I only had about four and a half weeks to put it together. I had no intention of doing it again and I the reason that I did it is because, when she said that, I thought that's what this is about. Right, it's not about the food, it's about the opportunity.
Speaker 1:I was your aha my aha.
Speaker 3:That was when the light really came on, because before I was kind of paying a karmic debt, someone did it for me. I need to pay it back, so why would I do it again?
Speaker 1:because so what do you need?
Speaker 3:now.
Speaker 1:What, what, what do you need? What is your organization? Oh, man.
Speaker 3:Right now, we are full on our drivers. We are still looking for a few drivers. I'm going through the list today and so there are going to be more opportunities open up Through. The weekend will have more opportunities open because I've got to kind of sort through and make sure a lot of people and what day of the week is this that you do? This 18th, so it's Saturday.
Speaker 2:I want the kids to go to school on Friday, saturday.
Speaker 3:Next Saturday. They get out of school on Friday, then they get food on Saturday. One and ten kids don't eat unless they're at school, so for that whole week they're going hungry, while we're just picking out and watching football and having a great week. It's just.
Speaker 2:I'm just asking. It's unacceptable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and Nobody's showing up to take care of these kids, and so it's up to us.
Speaker 1:Yep, it's our. You've got four that I know it for sure, because you got you me Shawna. Shawna will bring, I'll bring my wife in in her car. So there's four of us for sure. Maybe five.
Speaker 2:So I'm sure we're on that list. So there's the help that way. But but what? How does, how do we build the legacy Like, what do you?
Speaker 1:what do you need is an ongoing thing to help Really money drives freaking everything and it's unfortunate, but man, I mean, you can't buy the food if you don't have the money.
Speaker 3:That's where it's out. There's two ways to donate. Of course, there's a one-time donation. We have our QR code that we can throw back up that you can go in and on and donate and every penny Goes to help. The one thing that we're trying to do differently now is do a reoccurring gift that happens every month, where it's $30 a month where you're making that payment. I've got gym memberships that I I'm not going to at all.
Speaker 2:That cost more than that you know what I mean. It apps on my shirt are the goal into the jail. I see it and and.
Speaker 3:so if you could go on to do a Recurring gift and all what's we have about 800 cars coming through on the big day, if everybody, every car, donated $30 a month, how many more people could we feed? Right, we're good, could we do?
Speaker 1:in the community and what's? 30 bucks to everybody. It's like you said. I just had some fraud in in on my credit cards and in my account and I'm always looking for the positive in in the negatives, and the positive of it is is it forced me to shut everything down? All those automatic payments of all the shit that you don't know You're you're paying for, that you never use that, whether it's forgotten, tv subscriptions or, or this magic potion or that or the other. You know how it is. It kills them all. It's a good idea. And then I have I physically have to turn them all back on. So I'm looking at it and Making a conscious decision Do I really want to pay for?
Speaker 3:that I ever taken those vitamins Never exactly Is there?
Speaker 1:is there anyways?
Speaker 3:30 bucks is nothing nothing and it adds up in a quick hurry when it comes to donating plus you can write it off on your taxes.
Speaker 2:We're a 503 C yeah, so is this a right off there?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, so it is okay.
Speaker 3:Well, there it is. Yeah, that's a big one. Also, we're doing virtual turkey drives. If you have an organization or a company that has a big database, I could brand a website that says Atoms family real estate in partnership with thanks evening's heroes much smaller and you can send out to your database saying that we have a goal to feed 20 families, doesn't cost you anything. It creates a landing page. It's a good service. I love it. You can send that out and everything helps. The thing about donating food is, by the time I buy 3,000 turkeys, I get a really pretty good deal. Right, I quit taking food donations. I I can buy more than you can, right, so that money goes way further, way further.
Speaker 1:So then, so everybody. But what he's saying is they don't really want to take donated food and plus, it's hard to Sort it all. Put it all, I mean I'm sure you have a this system down, like you said. It's a well-oiled machine. Now, when that, when that food comes in, and they know exactly how this number of this goes here, this, there, bam, bam, bam, bam bam. So this isn't about donating food. This is about Money so that they can go out and take full advantage of of the discounts you're getting, because volume.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you, because you have that power with what you're buying, and our partner, associated foods, is incredibly generous with us. They deliver the food for free. Dang, can you imagine the delivery of 17? Well, you said 17 trailers and these are like semi-trailers, semi-trailers, 43 foot trailers. They deliver all that food and they show up right on time every time.
Speaker 1:And then we have a can you imagine the logistics of getting all that, all that, ordered and ready to roll? Yes, I can. On their end.
Speaker 3:That was a wild card in our and thanks even heroes. Before we would unload and I would have all the volunteers show up and help Me build the boxes. There's a company in draper called spectrum solutions. There are 3 pl. If you're looking to Ship box package anything, these are the guys you go to. That's they. They professionally pick and pack and so they'll unload the trucks. They have box machines and they put them on a production line and they run it through there. They have two teams that compete against one another and they're just yelling. They're talking trash back and forth.
Speaker 3:Oh, I love it to see who can build their boxes first right, and I think there's money on the line, like they bet each other. Oh my gosh, and we have the food outlined up in you got. You've got to come.
Speaker 2:When you come, you'll see how we wear houses and the piles and the. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let me ask you this so per box Roughly how much are you spending per box?
Speaker 3:It's about 80 dollars to feed a family for a week and think about that. There's a reason why.
Speaker 1:I ask that why? Because I mean, if you want to, I mean we talk about going on and spending that 30 dollars monthly or whatever, but guys, I mean the reason I'm doing this or saying this is it's 80 freaking dollars For a week for a week. For a week's worth of food for these people. You spent that last night on dinner, yeah yeah, one meal With a cheap dinner.
Speaker 3:Yeah, an expensive dinner yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy how much we can do with that money and make a difference in the world. When you're delivering that food, too, you go right up and you knock on the door and they open the door and, depending on their ability to receive, you can have a really wonderful experience. No matter what, you're having a good experience, but some of the experiences that people have will they'll decide. You know, we're going to do a sub-fersanta for that family. It's almost like an interview process for a sub-fersanta, where you don't just get like a random family. We picked these guys because we really connected with them and they've got three kids. I saw how big they were. I saw he was wearing a teeny-tiny turtleneck shirt. I'm going to get him some stuff.
Speaker 1:Now let me ask you this what are you doing? Are you calling these people and do they know that we're coming, or is it spontaneous? If they're not home, what do you do? I'm just curious.
Speaker 3:Yeah, good question. So well, a lot of them know, because they have to sign a waiver in order for the school to release the information to us.
Speaker 2:So come this is oh, okay, I was curious, okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 87% of the nominations come from school teachers.
Speaker 1:Well, they're the ones that know, they're the ones that have their finger on the pulse for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they know, and so they'll nominate their kids, but they have to get approval to do so, because they had to just give away information to a stranger you know, and then the rest is nominated by our community, by us. And what was the other part of the question?
Speaker 1:It was well, I'm just. I was just curious. So I, if you knock nobody's home, do you just leave it on the front porch.
Speaker 3:No, no, no. You call ahead and say, hey, I'm on my way, if they're like. Well, we're not going to be home till five.
Speaker 1:You come back at five, so let me back up, hang on, so you're going to deliver the food. I pull up into the line, you give me, obviously, something that has the three names on it Address and a phone number and then you call them on the way there and say hey, we're on our way. Yep, are you home? Yep, so it's not you having to make all the calls. It's all the delivery people and three calls.
Speaker 3:Piece of cake piece of cake and I don't want the food to get wasted.
Speaker 3:I work really hard all year to make sure that we can find the food and if it's just being left on the porch to be stolen by a go sour, that's not acceptable. So I agree, yeah, so and also I want that connection, I want you to have their contact information because there's been so many relationships that have been built out of this where created, yeah, where my family now is friends with this family, because we have a chance to meet them and now we then we did a supper Santa with them and it was great, and then they invited us to the kids baptism and whatever you know just takes off.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, yeah, yeah, my mind's like spinning out right now.
Speaker 3:It's a crazy logistical. That's one of my favorite things to share with my friends who come on the first year. And they come in, they just look around like what is going on? I usually have two different sports teams a baseball team or a football team. Last year we had two opposing teams. They're like rivals. Here in the Valley I have a DJ spinning tunes and so they're like dance fighting in the middle. And then there's another. There was another period of time where I had the women's council of realtors and a motorcycle gang on both lines, two going back and forth, talking some trash back and forth.
Speaker 2:Oh my, gosh.
Speaker 3:Here's the funny thing, the motorcycle guys were like you need to tell these women to calm down. Like are they are they. Are they hearing your fears? Get your ass.
Speaker 1:How big a boy are you?
Speaker 3:This is a draper mom, so be careful. Oh my gosh. I always say it doesn't matter if you're left or right or in the middle. Everyone can agree that hungry kids is unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, and so gets rid of that. You see, the diversity is just bananas and the amount of people that we have there that are showing up and taking advantage of this opportunity and sharing it with others, it just is. It's a great, great way to spend to start your holidays, you know what.
Speaker 2:but this isn't just a holiday thing for you. That's what I've seen. I mean literally all year long. You are pushing this, you are your eat, sleep, drink.
Speaker 1:Like it's a part of your soul.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like I mean, it's what I was made to do. Boys, if I can, if I can be vulnerable for a second, this is what God made me for. I've been put here for a lot of reasons, but this is something that's happened to that's bigger than me.
Speaker 3:And it's what God made me to do. If I didn't, I wouldn't, it wouldn't have been so successful. I sell real estate, I do this, I do that, I have a motorcycle club. I have all these things that I'm doing, but nothing that gives you back gives me back the fulfillment that I have here, and fulfillment is equal success. It's not the amount of money that is success.
Speaker 3:That's, that's, that's it doesn't matter what you drive, it doesn't matter where you live. If you don't have that one thing, you don't have success. It doesn't matter. I know a lot of rich people who are unhappy. Oh yeah, and this is the thing, and I really am feeling when you're talking about your coat drive and the different things services where it's at. If you're not serving, then you're doing it wrong. And I come from a family of service. I served in the Navy, I served in the army, I served, served. You served in both.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how did that come about?
Speaker 2:I'm a veteran times too, this guy, he's an inventor, he's, I mean he there's.
Speaker 3:so much competition between the army and the Navy.
Speaker 1:That like Europe you're. There's no way you're going to go to the other side but you did, I did.
Speaker 3:I joined the Navy out of high school. I took the test and I had this naval recruiter calling me every 20 seconds until he talked me into it and I learned how to fire nuclear missiles off of submarines.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know how to do that.
Speaker 3:Tomahawk missiles yeah, off of a Chicago class subs and they, which is a totally transferable skill, just so you know, like I came out, I came out, swip, swip, push button Die.
Speaker 3:In that order. Lots of people, yeah. And so, thank goodness I never had to exercise my skill set. But then I became a police officer and all of my buddies that were in the department all were in the Army National Guard MP unit and they were having a lot more fun than I was in the Navy, and so they talked me into coming over. Boo, navy, you're boring, yeah, yeah, what are you doing? We go up and shoot guns off the top of hummers Sleeping mud and holes. Yeah, that's. They didn't tell me that part, I didn't know that part.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you something funny. My, my old man uh, he's past, but uh, he always told me, if you join any service, you join the Air Force, cause you'll sleep in a bed every night.
Speaker 3:Yep, yeah, that's my dad too. He's like you. You join the Navy or the Air Force, they'll take care of you Better food, Whatever but it was, uh, it was a good for me. It was really. It made me who I am and that service has carried on and I really feel like in our life, um, my, my secret in being happy is when I get in my own head. When I get into, I call it the kingdom of the skull. When I get up in the kingdom and I get all sideways, it's serving other people. That gets me out of there, yeah, Gets me into a better spot. I don't know where this came from.
Speaker 2:It's neat, man yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, dude, I could talk to him all day. I know Agreed Like just this whole entire thing is just seriously amazing. Thank you, yeah, like amazing. I'm excited to participate.
Speaker 3:I am too, I'm excited for you to show up. It'll change your life.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've known you for a while, just acquaintances here and there, um and I've known that you've been doing this, but I've never been involved in any shape or form. I am now, yeah, yeah, buddy, all right.
Speaker 2:I like it. Let's do this.
Speaker 1:You know when we started doing our mixers and we started. You know we tie them to a charity. We've done everything from from stuff for kids going back to school to to shelters, women shelters and their needs, and and coat drives and and food banks, and you know what they're. We even did a a, a one for for dogs and for animals, animal shelter, animal shelter. So. But the bottom line is is is you're so right that that, the giving side of this, the fact that you're you're giving without expecting anything back but you get so much?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I'm, I'm the most blessed person you've ever met. Like, my life is so good because I do this and my karma bank is full all the time I'll lose my wallet, I'll find, it'll show up or it always works out. Everything is working out for me because I just I feel that you're thrown out there and I'm putting it out.
Speaker 1:And I don't care what self-help book you read, it's, I mean, we're reading a compound effect right now. Love that book. It's a great book, but any, any, any book that's worth its weight in gold. Every single one of them talk about giving without expecting to receive. That's, that's how you get ahead in life.
Speaker 3:You know, it's been interesting with Thanksgiving's heroes that there's been periods of time where I get into my, I get in my own way and I I think, well, what am I getting out of this? Why do I work so hard? Well, all the stuff, and that's when Thanksgiving's heroes flattens out and even starts to drop off. But when I remember my why, taking it back to the local dogma, the, the reason, my, my, why did I start this? Why is this important to me? It just takes off and it goes like crazy. And so it's interesting how I can get in my own way, right, well, we all can yeah, and we all do Daily yeah, regularly, and so, remembering that it's about it's more than just me, it's about that giving and and without expecting anything back. It's, it's been, it's refined me, it's changed who I am, the person that you knew when I first started in real estate, compared to the guy standing here today. Completely different man, night and day, night and day.
Speaker 2:Different man, yeah because he was there. You're just incredibly magnified, oh.
Speaker 3:No, thank you for real. No, thank you. I. I feel like what I said earlier about finding my why God made me like. Once you realize that in your life, why you, once you like, really get clear about this, is this is it.
Speaker 3:This is what I'm here to do instead of just skating through life going bouncing around, yeah, looking for the next thing, which I feel like a lot of us are. I did my man, yes, and once I kind of came to that spot, all of this Bandwidth opened up. I got rid of all of the nonsense and the static because I knew this is what I'm doing and I can do it all year and I don't get tired of it. I'm not going to burn out, because this is a sustainable, renewable thing. Does it get frustrating? Do I hate it sometimes?
Speaker 3:Yes, I absolutely struggle with this relationship because it's hard. This is heavy lifting. Try to motivate volunteers to do something they're not really interested in doing. Trying to get people to give me money who really don't have money. Trying hard to find the people that don't want to be found. Once I get through those things Negotiating the price of the boxes and the gallon of milk, and now the turkey just went up, and all of these things it can really sidetrack me. But when I remember, oh yeah, it's because it's awesome, it's because this is Great, because this is good, and where do you find the time to actually do real estate, bro?
Speaker 3:I I'm luckily, when I first got into real estate, fell in with some amazing mentors that taught me about time blocking and talking about being very intentional with my my life. I invented a process called the mbp and I do use it every day. Okay, what's?
Speaker 1:that. So what is that the mbp is?
Speaker 3:a two-minute version really quickly. My mini business plan, mbp. I write down every day the non-negotiables. These things have to happen before I can go to bed, before I can go on a motorcycle ride, before I can do whatever that is, and they're non-negotiable. So I don't go from like, oh man, I was supposed to be doing because I got a weight, or you get that phone call that distracts you because there's a fire that needs to be put out. I get right back to it and so I don't waste time between tasks. I'm going really quick through my, my day of my non-negotiables.
Speaker 3:Love it, if something doesn't get done, then it might be time for me to start looking for an assistant I might need to cause into the 3d's, do it, delete it or delegate it, and it really helps me be very clear about it. I can only have about 12 things on my mbp a day, otherwise I'm spreading myself too thin, and so it really helps me become clear on like. This is important, but not as important as that brother.
Speaker 1:We need to have you come back in and let's have a show about this, okay.
Speaker 3:It's seriously, yeah, every day I do it and it's non-negotiable.
Speaker 1:I mean you think of single moms, that that think of shana.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that that have full-time jobs circles around us, bro, I know.
Speaker 1:That have full-time jobs More than one, because your kids are full-time jobs. Each freaking kid is a full-time job, right? Especially if they're in any kind of extracurricular. Anything right, anything and just their needs and and and then then it switches to the full-time job of being A housewife I don't know if that's a proper word or a mom, I mean. On and, on, and on and on, I really this, this that you've got, I think is, uh, I think it's. It's got some Serious merit, not just for business people, but for people in general.
Speaker 3:A lot of productivity, just need to get things done right exactly.
Speaker 3:The other thing too, is there's not very many often, or it's not very often in life, where someone says good job, rob, nice, hustle out there today, right, I do it on a three by five card, I write it down and I put a line through it and when I get to the end of it I fold it in half and throw it in the trash and I just kick today's butt and I don't think about it anymore. Zig Ziglar says that we spend all of our time, as in our businesses, self-employed people, thinking about, while we're at work, what we could be doing man, I wish I was hiking or right at my pool or anything.
Speaker 3:And then when we're in our pool, we're thinking, man, I wish I was working, I should have called Aaron, I should have called on this gets rid of that, it gets rid of procrastination and it gets right down to the point and I've got to tell you it's, it's amazing. So I get a lot done, more than the next guy, because I have to. I have to feed my family, um, and I still have to feed other families, and because I have this very intentional day, I get. I get it done, man.
Speaker 1:So we started a program called our vip 50. So we basically take 50 people in our sphere of influence, in our life and and we we show up for them with intent. So we're doing soft touches and all kinds of stuff at least about eight times every single month for each person. So the very first thing we have to ask and too bad, so sad. Buddy, do you want to be on my VIP 50? I'm in, please, Bam.
Speaker 2:Do you see that he's my buddy?
Speaker 1:Too bad Too bad, too bad. Of course, I just swooped him right up, I got dibs, of course, no, yes.
Speaker 2:You were swooped by.
Speaker 1:Gary Eames Swooped.
Speaker 2:Be careful, you get heat swoops right into your nose.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Freaking, love it.
Speaker 3:We have a golf tournament that we do at Thanksgiving Point. I do a motorcycle rally every year. Hey, I want to go riding with you, dude, seriously, let's go. Yeah, I'm game. I love that motorcycle. That was the last fun story.
Speaker 2:You just started a game.
Speaker 1:A motorcycle club Club, not a gang my bad Club.
Speaker 3:Careful. Come on now.
Speaker 1:You're kind of felonies. Are you pulling right now, Rob?
Speaker 3:Where'd you get your teardrop tattoo Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I started a motorcycle.
Speaker 2:Don't drop the soap yeah.
Speaker 3:A club. We're actually not even a club. We're a network, because if you're a club, you have to get approval from other clubs.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So I started this motorcycle gang Me and my some friends Kind of like wild hugs.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's what we are. We're more of an executive level.
Speaker 1:So you guys, do you have patches in the whole bit? Yeah, oh, wow, it's pretty awesome. I wonder what other clubs think of that. Well, we are. Tell us that story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we put our patch together. I posted it on social media Come and join us. We're doing these amazing fun rides. Come out and hang out with us. I got a call from two different clubs I'm sure you did and they were mad about our colors and they were mad that we didn't get approval and they were mad that we were all these different things. And one of them called and said, hey, you're going to meet us over here at this time, hung up the phone and so I called up my one of my, or he called me actually and said hey, we've got this appointment. Should we dress in our leathers? Should we show up? And I'm like, no, let's just, let's just go, let's just show up, like us. And I was wearing kind of a. I came from a listing presentation, so I had a shirt and tie on. He was wearing a jacket and it looked sharp. And we walked in and these guys were all leathered up sitting there and the one guy with a teardrop tattoo he's like what the F Is this all about?
Speaker 1:And I'm like we're not. I think, in your motorcycle club that you're going to show up and with your colors blazing.
Speaker 3:And I said we're not your competition, we're actually here for you. If you need an attorney, if you're going to jail, you should probably call a dude that rides and if you're going to buy property, you're probably buy a color realtor who rides. Because we're your people, we're your Right, and then we understand you. Yeah, we're part of the culture. And they were like wow, what a great idea. And they both of the meanings ended with hugs.
Speaker 1:They were like so just snuffed it just that quick. Yeah, wow Cool, that's good.
Speaker 3:We did change our colors, though, because one of the clubs kind of told us, if you keep your color, someone will show up and they'll want to fight you. Is that what you want? And I thought, no, no.
Speaker 2:Sure, don't?
Speaker 1:I want to ride around and have a beer with my buddies and go have lunch. I feel like you're a part of an organization or a club that does camaraderie. And it's not the go and kick the shit out of people or Trafficking, trafficking Weapons or people yeah.
Speaker 3:It's just a bunch of guys that want to hang out, that are all community minded. They have to be service minded, they have to have kind of be entrepreneurial, like we're looking for some. We're looking for kind of executive level riders that happen to ride.
Speaker 1:Want to go for a ride because a lot of times, Because everybody wants to belong to their own tribe dude.
Speaker 3:Right. Well, I know what. You see A lot of solo bikes out there, really nice motorcycles, guys riding by themselves and riding with your buddies. Much more fun. Oh, totally, it's a great time. And safer, way, safer. Yeah, we just got to. We just did a big motorcycle rally down to Parawan. We went up over into Bryce Canyon and then down through Zion. Wow, came around and there was 12 of us, 10 or 12 of us on the ride and it was just a kick in the pants, just a bunch of guys hanging out being boys. We're basically just being a bunch of boys having a good time.
Speaker 2:Love it yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, men's, my men's groups, I think, are powerful. It feels like my father had like a baseball team he was on and a bowling league. We just don't do it anymore, right. We don't connect like we used to, right.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, we do. We connect with our phone in our face. Yeah, yeah, we're all isolated together.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:It's insane. Yeah Well, man, I'm telling you, dude, I mean it when I say it.
Speaker 2:We're going to and we got a week, basically of yeah Thanksgiving Opportunities to get some money in Sounds like.
Speaker 1:So, people, again, I'm going to throw it up one more time Hit this QR code and let's help this freaking stud out. Let's get some money in the coffers so that Feed some more families, you can roll right into next year. Yeah, you know, I mean, I'm sure that this year is probably buttoned up and because you have to order food and all that kind of fun stuff, I have to order food in February.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'm. So you're already on for next week, next year. Well, no, no, I ordered last February and we're going to be paying for the groceries this year. I've got to commit to the groceries in February.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. So you don't even have the money in the coffers and that you've committed to.
Speaker 3:So this that's the significance of the miracle.
Speaker 1:Holy shit, that's scary.
Speaker 3:I'm on the hook for like $240,000 worth of groceries that I'm committing to and I don't know where I'm going to get the families. I don't know where the money is going to come from. I don't know any of those things. But like I said every year, it works out. It works out A miracle.
Speaker 1:Well, this is part of it. So, wow, everybody get that freaking QR code and let's all be very, very generous right now. This is such such a meaningful program that this cat's put together.
Speaker 2:Thanks for doing this, man Seriously yeah.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me on and let me tell my story. Yeah, dude, it's, the miracle happens in relationships. That's that's the thing. Is there's somebody out there that's going to hear this? That's going to be like. I want to get behind this. Yep, I can impact this, I can make a difference here, and this is local. They're not sending the money to. No, it's right here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you get to see it. I saw you on the news the other day and and I mean this guy's all over the place. He really is all over the place, I love it, dude, you're doing great.
Speaker 2:I mean putting in the work. I love that. I know you.
Speaker 1:It's fun to watch Freakin dedicated man, that's why that's why you went from feeding 10 families to feeding 3,100 families just here. Just here, 12,000 nationwide Bananas, right, bananas. So do you fly to those other states? And, and, and are a big part there. You know if you just got everything set up in there, um no, I like to fly out to the States.
Speaker 3:It's really fun to go to Cleveland and do their golf tournament and and support them cause I I believe in the cause. This is something that I could talk about a little bit of passion. When I went to Dallas they had a casino night. Las Vegas they just opened up. They're going to do another 250 families cause they have a partner that came on to pay for the groceries and give them the space and so invite me, I'll go, I'm down for a good time, so how?
Speaker 1:how did you branch out to these areas? Real quick.
Speaker 3:Great question. Um, I'd go to like the, uh, these conferences, the real estate conferences, and I would. I would sit across the table from another real estate agent and my real estate business is pretty good, Like I'm doing, okay, and um, and especially in the economy, the way that it is, but almost in this market, in this market, they'll ask me why are, why are you, where are you finding your success? That's a great question to ask at a conference and I say, well, it's not through web leads, it's not through sphere of influence, it's through service. And this is what I do when I tell the story and they're like I could tell how do I get involved?
Speaker 3:I could tell how much does it cost? Like a lot of time costs a broken heart. You're going to be it's a lot.
Speaker 3:But, um, they signed on and they do it the first year and they're, they're hooked. That's you know. We, we talk in real estate about our SOI events, sphere of influence events and if you can invite your sphere to something, you should invite them to something meaningful that's not great, they're going to remember and that their kids are going to ask about their kids. My, my group, are these people? They, they, they are, their kids are like when did we deliver in the food? Cause it makes such an impact in their family. And when I go and talk to other real estate agents, I'm like, treat this like it's your event. I have no ego in this. Like, pretend like you want to feed 50 families and have your sphere of influence come and deliver the food, cause more is more. It's all going to the community.
Speaker 1:So roughly. How many more delivery people are you looking for? Do you know?
Speaker 3:Well, we were 136 cars short as of last Tuesday, so I don't really know where we are right now.
Speaker 1:Okay, Well, having more is better than not having enough, right we usually have about a 20% washout.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just don't come. Something comes up, right. And so we've got that, that window there on the big day.
Speaker 1:We're going to reach out to our VIP 50 that I talked about. Yeah, At least I am for sure and I know Aaron will. I'm going to reach out and see if we can't drum up some more. Deliver people.
Speaker 3:I love it If the link should open up again where I have a. I cleaned the list out. We're going to clean list out one more time. We'll have more opportunities. I will call you guys first so that you can reach out to your sphere and get it. Is that okay?
Speaker 1:Yes, Cause we're.
Speaker 3:I think we're close to capacity. I don't want to.
Speaker 1:Okay, yep, let me know.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Thanks for coming in. Since you're on my VIP 50. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dude.
Speaker 1:Oh, sorry, Sorry.
Speaker 3:Aaron Swoop.
Speaker 1:All right, guys. Thanks so much for for tapping in. I know this one went a little bit long, but, man, I could go another hour. Let's do it. So thank you, guys. Please make sure you jump on and subscribe to our YouTube channel Beards on the Street and Rob. Thank you so much, buddy for coming on, man. Thank you very much. We really appreciate it. It was so good. You guys have a fantastic week, can't wait.