Jeremy Park: Powering The Good Through Companies With Social Impact

Welcome to the Conscious Pivot Podcast with international speaker, business mentor, best selling author of Pivot, and your host, Adam Markell. The Conscious Pivot shares the stories and wisdom of people who have successfully reinvented some area of their business and personal life. You'll gain powerful insights into how you can fully embrace new opportunities, increase your performance, and master the art and science of innovation and resilience. So please join Adam as he guides you on your conscious pivotal hey everybody.

Welcome back to another episode of the Conscious Pivot Podcast. I'm your host, Adam Markell, and I am sitting here in just the seat of gratitude. You know, it's kind of funny to even just say that, the seat of gratitude, because sometimes in meditation, which is something that I've been really crummy at for a long time, is this meditating pretty good with just getting still for a few minutes or even, even getting into prayer, which I absolutely adore. It's one of my favorite things to do. But more recently I've been able to meditate and I started out with a book called Mindfulness. I got to get the author's name of that. I can't remember. And it probably would be important to at least edify them in that way. But I'm about halfway through this book, Mindfulness, who's written by some cool guy, actually two people really. And, and I am more and more able to sit in, in a seat of stillness and not thoughtlessness. It's so interesting about meditation. The thoughts just keep coming. Like the hits keep coming, the thoughts keep coming. And what I've, I guess, found works for me and is the essence of the meditation, to call it that is the ability to simply bring myself back to the present moment even as I'm recognizing that my thoughts are like, are sort of like caged animals just rattling, rattling the cage. You know, look, get my attention and keep my attention. And even though they grab my attention for a second or two, I've been finding it pretty easy to recognize them, see them for what they are. Like, oh, you're planning or you're worrying or you're thinking about yesterday or yesteryear or something. And by just recognizing what is that thought, it's almost like seeing a cloud or seeing the weather and not trying to make the weather change or go away, but rather to just get back to where I am in the moment, despite what my thoughts are doing on their own. So sitting here in this seat now, feeling grateful, and wherever you are in this moment, I think it's always helpful. At least I find it really helpful to even take a breath in the moment and just acknowledge something. That's right. What's one thing that you can acknowledge that's right in your life, in the moment? What's one thing you can acknowledge in the business that you're in? That's right in the moment. We get so wound up and worked up and frustrated sometimes with things not working. We had a little technology glitch. We started our show little, little past the schedule today. And those things can certainly just sort of get, get us, get us all worked up. It certainly could have, but didn't. And part of that, I think, is that there's so much going on. That's right. And so what's one thing that's going right in your life right now? One thing that you can be grateful for in this moment. And hopefully there's something you can find, even if it's just the fact that you're listening to this podcast right now, that you're breathing at this moment, that it's, you know, that we're all pretty safe at this moment. I know there are folks that are listening at different places around the world and we don't always feel safe in our homes or in our bodies and things like that, but there's just something we can feel grateful for. So I want to start there and then I'm also super grateful that I've got a new friend, somebody that I've met recently that I have just come to really appreciate and think a lot of. And so I'm glad that I got, right before holiday season to get him on the show and chat and talk about his life. Pivots. I would call him a serial pivoter. We'll see what he says about that in a moment, but I'm going to read a couple of words from his bio and then we're going to dig in as we always do. His name is Jeremy park and he is a corporate executive and philanthropist. Author of two books and weekly newspaper column, contributor to Forbes, producer and host of television and radio shows and a podcast and sought after speaker for transforming organizations and individuals into catalysts for their community. I saw this firsthand recently when I got to visit him in Memphis. Jeremy is also a CEO, the CEO behind CitiCurrent, an organization with a mission to power the good. CitiCurrent is a partnership of more than 120 businesses, including some of the world's largest employers like FedEx, Autozone, Verizon and Kroger. They've joined forces and funds to make a difference in the mid south and middle Tennessee. The organization has teams working in Memphis and Nashville. They host more than 150 free community events each year in both cities, producing an array of positive oriented media, financially and physically. They give back to a host of nonprofits in those communities. And as I said, I got to see this firsthand in a recent visit there. Welcome to the show, Jeremy. It's so great to have you here today.

Thank you. I'm honored and I love the fact that I was saying off mic, but, yeah, you're wearing the Memphis Rock shirts and you got the Stax Music Academy hat and Stax Museum of American Soul Music. So now we were honored to have you speak here in Memphis and obviously an honor to be on the podcast. So I guess you're right. Like, I'm a serial pivoter. Read the bio and all the things that we're involved in. But the ethos has always been making a difference, helping others, powering the good. And so when you look at it, all the different things that I've done in my life and career have really been about helping other people and trying to make a difference. And that's obviously what we're trying to do each and every day with city current here in Memphis, also in Nashville, and just honestly pushing out love and positive energy. And, you know, the idea that you can add purpose to everything you do and that it can be very easy because I think sometimes we get caught in the trap that we try to think, oh, well, it's, it's a separate piece. And yet when you start layering on purpose to everything you do, you realize that every day you have a chance to make a difference and it can be easy and fun.

Yeah, for sure. Well, look, you. You've done a lot. We're going to, we're going to track some of the history and the trajectory. There's a word for you of your career, personal and professional. But, you know, with that bio, what's something that's not written in your, in your bio that you'd love for people to know about you?

There's a lot.

I know, I know that's a tough question.

Well, I mean, you know, starting off, obviously with the idea, like you said, of just apprecia, of thankfulness, of mindfulness, obviously, family is first and foremost, very appreciative. To have an amazing, loving wife who allows me to do all this and stands by my side doing it, which is a huge piece of this because, as you know, the hours, this is a 247 responsibility. So to have her by my side is huge. To have two boys, you know, at this point, 16 and 11, who are healthy, who are great kids, students, but also too just great human beings with compassion and empathy and care for others. And I've got some amazing storylines on that, especially with the little one who's just, you know, taken it upon his heart to try to tackle things like bullying. I mean, that to me as a parent is huge because it shows that they have care for others. And then I look at my parents and my brother and his family and I just look at the people around me who serve as my mentors and friends. I just think I'm monumentally blessed with amazing relationships. And so I think that's the part in the bio that isn't necessarily there is everything that I've done is a byproduct of people believing in me, pouring into me, helping me. And I think the relationships that come about as a result of that are just huge. And you can't really put that on paper necessarily. I mean, I've had really cool experiences from music and standing on stage in front of thousands, playing songs that I've written. I've played tennis and been the head tennis pro at Beverly Hills Country Club. And tennis has taken me around the world. And so I've got the kind of the physical side of the experiences, but I look at the relationships to me as the most important, especially with family and friends.

You know, I don't typically do this, but I feel called to ask you about your childhood and was there, were there any signs when you were a kid that you'd end up so driven by these causes because you are a purpose guy? I mean, to me, everything that you do oozes of somebody that cares deeply about other people, that wants to give back, that wants to build a meaningful life. Is that something you were just always kind of dialed into that station when you were, you were younger?

Younger, absolutely. And I talk about it when I speak as well, in the sense that my brother and I grew up in a household with a 247 open door policy. So 2am 2pm it didn't matter if a family was down on their luck, going through a divorce, job loss, just needed help. They would come to our house. And my mom and dad, my dad was in the insurance business and mom was a school teacher. But 99.999% of the stuff that people had problems with wasn't related to insurance and wasn't related to school. And so we just saw at an early age because we'd be Playing and I'm dating myself. But like, GI Joe.

You're from Texas, right?

That's where you grew up in. Yes, I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lived there for eight years. Really? Grew up in Dallas, Fort Worth area in Texas. Lived in Los Angeles for almost a decade, and then we've been here in Memphis for about 13 years. So that's kind of my, you know, across the country story. But growing up in Texas, we just got to see the power of helping people. And the more that my parents opened their hearts and opened the doors, the more just amazing things happened. And so we saw that it wasn't rocket science in terms of helping others, but the more you were genuine and authentic, it just. It opened up so many more opportunities for life and for seeing the good and being a part of it. And heavily involved for us in Boy Scouts, that was a big part of it. My dad still serves on the national board and does all these. We were just talking the other day. He's. We keep telling him, you know, at some point, he's gonna actually retire, be.

The last year at some point.

Right, right. But it's always the running joke. But he just did a jamboree for, like, 6,000 kids.

Wow.

And merit badge colleges, and he just loves it, even though we're long gone from scouting. And my brother, you know, got his Eagle Scout. He just. He himself is a huge believer in helping others and that legacy of just, you know, helping a achieve. So, anyway, my brother and I saw that young growing up, and I think it just stuck with us. And so my brother serving in the Marines for 20 years, obviously community service was near and dear to him. And then when you look at everything that we've tried to do as a family and tried to do individually, it's all built around purpose. And I think, too, we lost my aunt, who was a schoolteacher and very close at an early age, to an aneurysm. We've lost my uncle. So, in other words, I've lost some very dear loved ones who are. All of them were involved in the community. But when you start to realize that life is short and life is precious and that, you know, we need to be out there taking advantage of every single day to do something to help others that puts that fire and that urgency even at a greater level.

Yeah. Listen, I know that the people that are listening or watching this right now and listening to it are the choir, in essence. I know that this community, this is not a radical message for them, and it is sort of would be a receptive audience to this. And yet at the same time, I want to take up the position, even for a moment, of being not so much the skeptic, but the person that knows in their heart, they've known a long time that giving back or being more involved or just opening their hearts at a deeper level would invite something, whether it's because they've heard it, it's been a part of their spiritual past, or the teaching that they've been around, or they've read great books, maybe they've read one of your books, or they've read a book that I read a long time ago by Bob Berg called the Go Giver. You know, really just tremendous book on.

That.

That brings home that point. You know, what can we say to folks that go, you know, this is. This all makes sense. And yes, I am. You're preaching to the choir, sir. But I'm also somebody that's so, like, up to my eyeballs in things, in things and responsibilities and to dos and lists in the world of the entrepreneur, the business owner, even in a job today, it's almost like there's no end to the week. Remember when I had the pleasure to. To be with your organization, City Current, we talked about how there's almost no weekend and there were chuckles in the room about that because we all get that there's almost no boundary between work and employees, job and the life outside of work, et cetera. So for somebody like that, that might just say, hey, listen, all this makes sense and. Or, but. But's the great negator. Yes and. Or, yes, but, you know, how do I make time for that or how do I fit that into my life? I mean, you've led a very active life. As you said, you were a professional tennis player at a certain point in your life. You were in a rock band. You had, you know, got married pretty, Pretty young and got two kids. And all those things speak to the fact that there's, you know, that people are still dealing with a bandwidth that has limits and that giving back and opening themselves up and making time for things to volunteer or contribute is just not as easy, let's say, as it might sound.

Absolutely. No. And I'm a realist. I'm the first to say that when you look at giving back and purpose, we're in a society that's about me. It's ROI driven, obviously, return on investment, but it's also too, it's. We want immediate gratification and so think it's important to understand the trends. And so when you understand the trends. You understand why this purpose driven mentality is so important with your business, obviously with you as a person, but also for your family. So let me kind of rattle off a few. And this is the stuff that I cover primarily with the stuff that I do with Forbes. But the first one is that social impact is now mandatory. And so when you look at it, that was actually the line in Forbes is companies without social impact culture will soon be obsolete. And when you look at it, USA Today, consumers in America now looking at corporations to be a part of the solution. The bottom line is, is that consumers are making their purchasing decisions based on social impact. And millennials, 85% of their decision process is built around the social good efforts. I mean, I can rattle off a lot of stats, but the bottom line is, is that the shampoo I buy benefits St. Jude. We make purchasing decisions based on the giving back nature of the businesses. Also too, employees are choosing where to go and work based on purpose. And so they don't want to just basically punch a clock. They want to serve with a company that allows them to go out and serve in the community. And I think so when you look at attracting, retaining, developing the right talent, when you look at the consumer and driving the purchasing decision, the social impact culture is a huge piece of it. And then you start getting into all of these things with turnkey volunteerism and how nonprofits really are struggling not only financially, but to find the volunteers. And we hover around 25% in terms of the volunteerism across America. And when you look at it, people physically solve problems. That's a big part of, we kind of live on three truths. And the first one is that people physically solve problems. And so, you know, a dollar bill, while it's a great resource to fund the mission of a nonprofit and to do what we need to do to activate and to build and to, you know, pour into our companies too. A dollar bill doesn't physically solve a single problem. It doesn't parent a child, mentor a child, scrub graffiti, plant trees and flowers, doesn't physically do anything people do. So we need them actively engaged. And so turnkey volunteerism, social impact, the idea of kind of this one for one model that really obviously isn't a fit for every company, but the idea of not waiting until the end of the year to see if you've had a good year or a bad year to give versus baking in the hard cost of giving back into every single transaction. So a percentage of sale, which is something that companies can do, there's so Many things that when you look at the trends and kind of where things are headed versus what you can apply, one, knowing that purpose is driving everything now. It gives you a story, it gives you impact, it gives you the ability to attract, retain the right talent. It also too allows you to win the heart of the consumers. And then you start looking at how easy you can make it. And you know, we talked a lot about this when you were in town, but things like modified work schedules, bringing in executive directors, doing tours, nonprofit tours, you can literally over lunch, share the good, be a part of packing meals. I mean, there's so many things you can do now that are turnkey and easy that I think you are missing a huge opportunity if you're not. And even if you go in with the impetus of, you know, maybe we're doing it for that reason and not the heart reason, in the end, your heart will be warmed up and you'll, you'll open it up because you realize, just like Gandhi said, you find yourself in the service of others. When you start pouring in, you yourself receive so much. And also too, I mean we talk about it here all the time with citicarn is, you know, there are a million networking organizations. But when you look at what makes us different, it's the service aspect, it's the philanthropy. And when you look at things like Samaritan's feet, where we go and we have hundreds of volunteers, wash kids feet, give them new socks and shoes. Those who are coming out to serve are CEOs. It's people like Bill Rhodes, who's the CEO of Autozone. He doesn't go to networking organizations and networking events. He comes out to service and community driven events. And so when you talk about, for you as a CEO, as a business owner, you know, plugging in to having a purpose gives you the heart, but it also too allows you to build these relationships that you wouldn't build otherwise. And so yeah, I could go on and on and on.

I think the statistics, as you said, are pretty, they're really telling that consumers are more likely to work with, to purchase something from a company that has a purpose that's well defined, that they can align themselves with so they recognize that purpose and they'll choose that company over some other company to buy their product from. And millennials are more likely, five times, 5.3 times more likely to stay with a company because that company's purpose is something that aligns with what they feel is important in the world. So let's talk about something you mentioned in those Few moments about it not being a part of the budget, let's say. Because I think in many ways this relates back to personal finance where there's an old rule, an old adage that you pay yourself first. And we've probably everybody's heard that, not everybody lives by that mantra. But the reason it goes to pay yourself first is because if you don't, if your method is to wait till the all the bills are paid to first pay yourself, we all know what happens when all the bills are paid. There's that much left. And so this idea of baking in, baking in was the word used bake in the giving component to your company. And that doesn't have to just be money. I mean, it doesn't have to be be money at all. In fact, because volunteerism is, as you said, it's not money that gets those things done, it's people that get them done. So how do you bake in? And that's my question for everybody that's considering this in this moment. How do you bake that into your model? And it doesn't matter whether your model is that you're a solopreneur or whether you're running a mid sized organization or something bigger than that, because these are things that have to get baked in at the start of the year, at the beginning. Not waiting, as you said, to see whether or not we've been profitable that year and then determine what's fair and what makes sense to give back. You know, I'd like to know a little, is that how you're defining turnkey volunteerism? Because some people might be saying, okay, so tell me more about that. What, how do you define and what is turnkey volunteerism?

Well, let's go back to the baking inside because I think it's important one for every company, but also too for you as an individual and a family to have a purpose statement. So what do you stand for outside of the goods and products that you sell? What do you stand for? What are you trying to accomplish? What difference are you trying to make? And I would encourage people to literally write down their purpose statement. Because you and I mentioned, even on the car ride to the airport is the first time I met Fred Smith. He asked me, come in the door, what's your purpose? And he wasn't talking about the purpose of my meeting, he was talking about the purpose for me as an individual. So, and now more than ever, companies are asking that in the hiring process, what's your purpose? So they want to know you as a person. What are you trying to accomplish with your life? And so I think having that as a company is huge. Obviously, having that as an individual and having that discussion as a family for you and your kids to have that is a very powerful way to galvanize and bring you together.

But anyway, so let's go for just a second. I want to pause there.

Yeah.

You had a pretty significant meeting or a, you know, call it a seminal experience in meeting Fred Smith, who's a CEO, the founder of Federal Express. And, you know, you go in and meet with him and he asks you one. One question, which you weren't, you know, weren't necessarily expecting.

Right, right. I mean, well, right out of the gates. I mean, it's. It's. I wasn't even, you know, seated yet, and he's like, I want to know what's your purpose?

And not your purpose, like the purpose.

Of your business in that he already knew the meeting. Right.

Your personal purpose.

My personal purpose. What did I think? Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, to have what to me makes a fun, vibrant conversation is when you. When you dig down three layers. Right. @ least. And then you can start digging further. But he wanted to know how many layers I had and could he pass the surface? Because everybody comes in selling something. That part's easy. He wants to know what I stand for, what do I stand for? What do I believe in? And for me, it was education right off the bat. And it still is to this day, education to us as a family. If you ask my wife, my kids, like, everything, they're going to say, what's your purpose? What do you stand for? They're going to say education. And so that then opened the floodgates for us to have a great conversation. And then, you know, 30 minutes in, then we dive into what I was there to talk about. But he wanted to know that there was more to me than just him being sold something by me. And so I think that's where understanding your purpose. But using FedEx is a great example. You can go on their website and look at their social impact statement, and this will lead to answering your question. So companies now are putting it right there at the forefront. And so for them, they talk about the three things. They pick three things that they really focus on. Disaster response, pedestrian safety. And the beautiful thing, too, is that they also list out how they're able to do that in terms of making a difference. And one, to your point, is dollars. Two, though, is they talk about their volunteerism. And then three, in kind, because in kind, shipping for FedEx is a huge piece of what they do. And so when you talk about things like turnkey volunteerism and not waiting until the end of the year and baking in the hard cost, that's exactly we're talking about is how do you do an audit of what you have. And even you mentioned the solopreneur, the entrepreneur. I guarantee. I mean, just looking right now, we've got laptops, we've got yeti mics, we've got podcasting equipment, we've got cameras. I can loan those out to nonprofits. If I do an audit of what I have, even as an individual, I've got resources that I can loan out and help a nonprofit with. If you have conference spaces, if you have trucks, delivery trucks, you know, doing toy drives and food drives and using those trucks for that. So to your point, it doesn't always have to be the money. It can be the assets, it can be the team. And then you get into for your team, how do you make it easy? And so that's where things like one, empowering your team to take ownership. So in other words, it doesn't have to be you as the CEO. It can be. A lot of times the millennials love leading the charge. They love going out and setting up the nonprofit tours and the volunteer days and doing things like a modified work schedule where you allow them to leave the office, you know, around 3:30 and go mentor and tutor kids from 4 to 5 and then they leave like they would a normal workday. But allowing your team to then take ownership, One, it gives them a leadership opportunity. And two, is it to your point, it galvanizes the team and it gets the trust and the buy in at such a high level.

And there's been it bakes it in. I mean, you're absolutely a concept that sounds good or sits on a plaque or is used, as you say, to sort of attract talent and you know, sort of in a manipulative or well.

It has to be whatever, right? People see through it. And I think now with social media especially, we want to and we expect to see companies out serving, but also too, because of social media, everything is transparent. So you're not going to pull the wool over anybody's eyes. If you're not doing it for authentic reasons and your team isn't out there doing it, believing in it, people are going to see through it. That's the part where, yeah, it's. But I think also too, whether you believe in it or not, in the first step, eventually it's going to Win you over. Because what you gain out of it is so much more powerful. And you know, even for us, we talked about it too, this idea of kind of the transactional quid pro quo. I help you, you help me, and we kind of stair step our way to success. And everything we're talking about in terms of this csr, this cause, marketing, this, it's a planting philosophy. It's, I'm going to go out there and sow, you know, and plant these seeds and pour into the community. And what happens is over time, this curve, it goes from this stair step I'm doing on the camera, but this small stairs, all of a sudden it's like boom. And it just skyrockets and, and that's what I saw growing up is, you know, we're able to go on the field with like the Dallas Cowboys as a blue collar family. My, my brother who always wanted to serve in the Marines but had LASIK surgery and they didn't realize that it wasn't federally approved. So they're going to kick him out. And in less than 48 hours, my parents were able to get to Congress and get a four star general out of Quantico who was on vacation to approve my brother to stay in the Marines to be the guinea pig, so to speak. And we get to the base for graduation. The commandant wants to meet this family and he's expecting someone like Tom Hanks, like a celebrity. And my parents walk in and we're just average looking family. And he's like, who are you? And my dad's like, I'm John park. And like, you're not what I was expecting at all. And my dad's like, look, when, you know, we help people and when we need help, they help us. And I think that's the part where once you buy in, your life changes, but your business changes as well.

Yeah. You know, this just dawned on me that one of my favorite movies is an old Frank Capra film that probably everybody has seen at least once, It's a Wonderful Life. And this is the, you know, this is the, this is the Bailey model, you know, the Bailey Building in loan. You know, the idea that, that when you give in the community, you give back to people. We all come to a point in our lives where we're also in need. Whether it's some form of support, whether it's emotional support or it's some other form of support. And it's not a. You know, I don't love that term quid pro quo. Even though I'm A lawyer and I really, you know, lived in, with that term in contracts and things for a long time. I feel like it's when you're. When you're giving for the right reasons. And again, everybody's got their own right reason, but it's something that you just feel good about doing. Then, then it. There's natural, there's just a flow of things that would otherwise not be there. But for the fact that you. That that's the spirit in which you showed up to begin with, and you want to bake that in. That's the point. I think there's a lot of people who just won't. Won't have any objection to this idea creating something for benefit that they'd love for their enterprise to somehow have a benefit in the world. And, and people have even gone to the trouble now of creating entities that are designed and through its. Through their bylaws and in, you know, with. With a board of directors holding them accountable, that these companies are there for the benefit of others. They're still for profit companies. It's not even. And even a nonprofit. I think we all get that a nonprofit has to make a profit or doesn't exist. Right. Well.

And I think we're all in the trust business. I mean, that's what it boils down to now is are you trustworthy, are you authentic, are you sincere? And these are things that we label as a person, as an individual. But it's true. That's what we're looking at, businesses and nonprofits. And we want to know that what we're putting our time and efforts into is making an impact. And I think that's the key, is that we all now more than ever realize that life is short, life is precious. We have way more opportunities than ever before in terms of where we go to work, where we go to church, what we do with our time, where we shop. And so we want to know that what we're doing with our time has impact and is making a difference. And that's the part where I feel like we're all now in the trust business. And the best way to build trust is. Is to do the right thing out in the community. And it doesn't have to be a lot. It can be a little, but just a little is better than nothing.

Yeah. And if you don't plan for it, again, I'm being redundant. But you and you and I talked about this too, that there's a real. There's a power in redundancy, in cascading a similar message It's a Patrick Lencioni concept of just being able to be alright and saying the same thing again and again. So people just understand it's not the flavor of du jour. Right? This is not just the thing you're doing in the day, in the moment to, I don't know, keep up with other people or, you know, read it somewhere. I think it's, you know, it's good conceptually, but it's not something we're gonna bake into the batter. Anything that goes in the mixing bowl, anything that goes in the batter ends up in the cake. And so to me, what do you want to end up in the cake? If what you want to end up in the cake is that you are a company that is legitimately giving back, that you're, you're contributing something back to the community, then you've got to put it in the. Then those are the ingredients that have to go in to begin with. So, you know, to me, it's hard to look at the cake when it's baked and go, oh, you know, I really, I want to now I want to sprinkle on giving, I want to sprinkle on mission. I want to sprinkle on purpose. It's a difficult thing to do at that point. And I get it, you know, from a practicality standpoint that some people, you know, would find that, that tough. So I think there is a, you know, just quickly show you something. We've done some work with this company, successful companies like some of the ones you mentioned. WD40, I use that a lot. Do you use it a lot? Wow, me too, actually. I mean, it's a lubricant company.

I was about to say, yeah, all of our doors, everything, everything. WD40 on everything.

So check it out. So the CEO, Gary Ridge and I, we had a meeting some months ago at his office and he handed me this and I just want to read this because this again, this is a company that makes a spray lubricant, other products as well. But that's their big thing. What do you think their purpose is? This is their purpose. We exist to create positive, lasting memories in everything we do. We exist to create positive, lasting memories in everything we do. That's their purpose. That's the purpose. You'd say, well, what's the connection between that product or those, those products and that purpose? And go, man, that's just the beginning of the story. So, you know, to me, everybody is your. Wherever you are in this moment. I typically. This is not the format of the show to say, hey, do something like, you know, take an action right now or give them a homework or whatever. But I think what you said earlier that you can think about and write down, what do you stand for? What is the purpose, your personal purpose? Because maybe someday you're going to find yourself in a meeting with a guy like Fred Smith or somebody maybe is coming to meet with you, and you're the person that gets the opportunity to have an impact on that individual, the way Fred impacted you with such a powerful question. And so, yeah, if Fred said to you, hey, you know, what is your personal purpose? Yeah, he's digging into the deep strata, into the depth of the who you are for something meaningful to connect with. And the question is not only, you know, can you ask that of another person, but what's the answer for you? I mean, I was considering it when you said it. Where we're committed to transformation, that's what we do. That's what our business, all of our businesses, whether it's in the keynote speaking arena where we get out and go and speak to groups, or we're consulting with organizations, or we train public speakers, it's all about transformation, in contrast to how we typically think of business, which is all about transaction. So this the way to look at where there's an opportunity for transformation in everything we do, I think, is. Well, I know it's what drives us, and it's endlessly opportunistic. There's always, in every moment, there's a moment that's. There's. There's an opportunity for transformation in every moment. So I want to. I want to circle back with you as well on the work you're specifically doing in Memphis, because as you said at the beginning, I'm wearing this Memphis Rock shirt and. And there's an organization, you know, that you took me to to see, which was to experience stacks there, Academy and the school and the museum. And then we went across the street. Share a little bit, if you could, about some of the organizations. And too many to count, because there's more than, I think, 100 really successful businesses just in the Memphis community that are part of City Current. I would like to maybe have you feature one or two, talk about them and how it is that City Current is assisting and contributing to that organization and its mission. And then if there's time, I'd really love to just talk about Memphis as a city. I said this on stage. I meant it, and I'll say it again. I fell in love with this place. I thought, man, it is such a deeply soulful place. I mean I named it properly, you know, Soulsville. There's just tremendous heart and soul in that community and there's also a palpable pain body that, that exists that goes back 51 plus years to the, to the, to the day that, that, that MLK was assassinated. So if we can, I'd love to touch on some of those things, some of the organizations and then, and then trail back to talk about Memphis as a beautiful community itself.

Sure. No, I mean we've been here, like I said, 13 years and we absolutely love Memphis. And I think just starting out, you are In a top 50 market that's huge, that's got global connectivity because of International Paper, FedEx, Autozone, ServiceMaster, all of these companies that have their global headquarters here. And yet you're in a small town field where people take care of each other, people have your back. And I think just the sense of community here and the deep roots and care for each other is genuine. It's unlike something that I've seen in places that I've lived across the US and worked. And so that's to me why I love this city so much. But to your point, and we've got over 100 different companies and they range from small, medium and very large. We have Napa Cafe, which is a restaurant, to Germantown Day spa, to technology with Master IT and E Biz Solutions and Expedient on that side. And then you get into commercial real estate and banking and insurance with Lipscomb Pitts Insurance. And so you've got a very wide spectrum of different businesses. But when you look at it, they all care about community, they all care about pouring in. And they all understand too that they going back that they're in the trust business and that by working together as a brain trust for each other, they can share knowledge behind the scenes and they can develop amazing programs and platforms and community projects. And so we have the benefit of behind the scenes connecting all these resources and powerful minds and then on the front end using all these resources to truly just give back and make a difference with free community events, philanthropy. And then all this positive media that we produce, like the TV shows, the radio shows, the podcasts, the columns, all of that is really intentionally around sharing and developing community and best practices and things that are working well so that others can become a greater spark. And so you know, looking at like FedEx is obviously got a global platform. FedEx cares their purple promise. They love the fact that their teams are out there making a difference and then we do so much with them. I mean they, they allow us to host private events to work with them on things like their Orbis flying Eye hospital where they donate a jet that flies with Orbis into countries and do the eye care. So we've got amazing stories with companies like that. Then you have companies that are pouring into schools and they're doing things like Steam and STEM and robotics and Smith and Nephew. We go in with them and they're doing mentorship and guidance around robotics and manufacturing and they adopt schools and then you get into like the banking where they're doing literacy programs with like Junior Achievement. And so I think, you know, even Morgan Bohanna with Cumulus where we had a chance to put you on the radio, you know, someone like him, he's the board chair for Junior Achievement and so of Memphis in the mid south. And they're J A Biztown. And so all of these people deeply care about community. They're all involved in such a wide spectrum of things. And to me it's just, it's cool to see because kind of back to everybody playing their note. They, they're all passionate about something as a business and as an individual. And together collectively we get to kind of play this cool role where it's like you don't have to do everything. You can do a small bit in your passion area. And if you do a small bit and you do a small bit and you do a small bit with a shared vision that everybody kind of realizes they can separate the competition and actually work together, then together we can move the needle in a big way. And I think that's the part where.

Is that, what city current would you say? That's one of the things I don't know. If you had planned when, when you were creating the business plan for what has become citicurrent, was that a thing that you were anticipating would happen? Because it seems like that's one of the great benefits of what's, what's gone on with that organization.

Well, and you even mentioned it yourself, you're like, Jeremy, you're a connector. And that's exactly what this is, is connecting people, connecting funds, connecting the power of a shared vision. And so to your point. Yeah, I mean I spend the vast majority of my day breaking down big initiatives that need a lot of people and a lot of money into small bite sized pieces so that everybody can play a role. And in many cases these are, you know, million dollar projects, $10,000 projects. I mean it runs a huge gamut, but people Come to me all the time saying, here's something that's important for our community, how we can only do this much. How can we collectively get there and get across the finish line? And so to do that, you have to have one, a lot of people who know who you are and trust you. And luckily, we're blessed with City Current, where we have a very wide network of people that we've been helping for a long number of years. And so when we need help, we can mobilize. And so things like a telethon. We hosted a telethon we needed. When one of the disasters hit and Red Cross needed to raise $25,000 in each market, they came to us and said, we have less than 24 hours, what can we do? We said, let's host a telethon. So we hosted a telethon, we raised over $25,000. And in that amount of time, we had the volunteers, we set up the phone banks, we had billboards across the city, we had TV stations pushing it out. But all of these little things we've done throughout to build these relationships. In good times, when disaster strikes or when the need is great, they step in because we've galvanized our relationship. And we know, hey, we're all working toward this same vision. We can put aside any sort of competitive nature and we can all come together and do something special for the right reasons. And I feel like every city needs these third party catalysts that just go out and do the right thing with no bureaucracy, but in the end, win the heart of a lot of different people so that you can actually do something special. I mean, 15,000 volunteers picking up litter, I mean, stuff like that, which is crazy when you look back at some of the things we've been able to do. Mortgage free homes to wounded veterans, but it's simply a product of us getting a lot of people to buy in and then saying we only need a small amount, you know, for each individual person. Yeah. And honestly, where it really, a lot of this came to me personally is I was playing tennis over, and it was a small city over in Europe, and this is back in like the 90s, but there was a model, a replica of what the city was going to look like in 2020. Really interesting to go back and see if, like, you know, how far along it is now, all these years later. But anyway, anybody you asked in that little community could tell you exactly, oh, that's where the museum is going to be built. That's where the new school is going to be over there, that's where this is going to be. So it galvanized the whole community. But the thing is, it also did is it got people to realize the power of I might sacrifice short term because someone over there is going to win, but in the end it's going to come to me. And so I think that sense of shared vision allows you to realize there's going to be short term sacrifices for long term gain. But in the end, that's how you win consensus and build that shared vision that ultimately allows you to do something really creative and special. And that's, you know, that's kind of what we try to do, is have a shared vision, win the hearts of everyone by doing all this good in the community so that when people need us, we're here for them and we can do some big things. Activate.

Well, that seems like a shared vision of the city of Memphis to begin with. Are you guys, in terms of the volunteerism and the giving back, you're one of the most giving cities in the United States, maybe sixth on the list. Is that it? In terms of get that right?

Or depending on the list, I mean, sometimes we're number one, sometimes we're number two. We're always in the top 10, but we're usually hovering around one or two too. And it's about 6% per capita. And you have a very large faith based community here, which is a big part of that is the belief of tithing and pouring the money in. And so that's a piece of it. But in general, to your point, you know, Memphis is a city that has gone through a lot. It got wiped out with the yellow fever epidemic in the late 1800s. Then you had the assassination of MLK. And so there's been a lot of things that have happened to this city, but in the end, you know, you.

Have a resilience that's certainly borne out of everything.

And we accept the pain. I think that's the cool thing is, you know, the Grizzlies coined the term but grit, grind and you do you have even the entrepreneurs here. There's definitely something special about the water in Memphis. But the point is, is that we have a soul here of just the resiliency of coming together and where the affluent and afflicted live together. That's one of the other terms that Michael Drake uses a lot. But we just want to work together and help each other and not hide from it. And I think in many cities you can push away the pain and you can hide from it and pretend that Everything is hunky dory and amazing. And we say we're all in this together, we've got scars. But you know what? We're actively trying to make it better. And I feel like that's an authentic, very cool spirit, that it's like we've got something special here, we're proud of it. At the same time, we still got work to do and we're gonna do it. And we're not hiding from it. We're ready to do this. And so there's a can do attitude that's, that's really special about Memphis as.

Well, and a stick to itness, a sort of, again, resilience is the word that comes to mind. And resilience is something that you can build. All the research is clear on this. You build it before you need it, you develop it before you need it. And part of coming together as a community in good times, as you said, enables everybody to be there at other times when we all know that the winds of so many things change, the environment changes, and we need each other in those moments even, even more than at some other times. But, you know, somebody like Tom Shadiak, talk about that project for just a moment because I know, you know, there are. Just because you want to or are committed to doing something good in the community doesn't mean it always works out right away. It doesn't mean that there's always this, you know, this immediate gratification, so to speak. It's a, it's a time thing. It requires that level of resilience and tenacity to keep going toward or following that. That's why your purpose is so important, because it will always remind you of the direction that you want to be headed, even when things start. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, and I think that's the part I love about Memphis the most, is it's a very purpose driven community. And I mean, I genuinely feel if you want to make a difference, there's no greater place in the world to live than the Memphis because you have the global resources, but you have the small town connectivity where you can see tangibly the difference you're able to make. And it becomes so encouraging and inspiring and you then you find yourself even more pouring in. But anyway, Tom Shadiak, amazing man. He's the producer, director, Bruce Almighty, Liar, Liar, Ace Ventura, so many Hollywood, you know, mega movies and had a bicycling accident. He was a mountain biker. Still is avid mountain climber and bicyclist in the whole nine yards. But anyway had an accident Had a concussion and thought that was going to be the end. I mean, he was kind of living in a closet for a while. And as his last hurrah, decided to do this documentary, I Am, which is an amazing documentary, highly, you know, everybody needs to go see it, but you can find it anywhere now. But he asks the question, what's wrong with the world and what can we do about it? And it's a really amazing documentary that he himself goes on this journey and in the process becomes healed and realizes what's important. And he had been chasing the fame and the fortune and keeping up with the Joneses and had the huge mansion in Malibu and everything else and decided to basically sell all that off and become a philanthropist and started teaching classes, life and storytelling at Pepperdine and then started doing that here in Memphis. We had a chance to meet him and work with him and his family. His father helped Danny Thomas start St. Jude. His brother Tom's brother Rick Shadiak is the CEO of ALSAC St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. So through and through, their family is focused on making a difference as well. And he himself, mental health is a big part of what he wanted to tackle. And just like, just like St. Jude is trying to cure childhood cancer, he wanted to do something special to focus on the cancer of the mind, mental illness and mental health. So he spent at this point, about $13 million of his own money creating Memphis rocks and one family Memphis. And it's a place where it's a state of the art climbing gym. You have to see it to believe it.

You saw it, it is incredible.

But the ethos of that gym is that all of the kids in the community, and he specifically chose Soulsville, which is in an area of the city that in many cases hasn't been given the love and appreciation that it needs. And so it's fallen on some tough times. And he specifically chose that place. Not enough fluent neighborhood.

Right?

He chose that neighborhood so that all of the kids nearby could come in for free. And his thing is, is that if you can pay, you pay, and if you can't, you volunteer. And so all these kids volunteer out in the community and they get gym access to then climb. And it's becoming an amazing place of healing, of hope, of inspiration. And it's all because of his vision to see this thing realized. And the next step, he just did the movie Brian Banks, but is to turn across the street into a movie production studio that will hire all of these local kids to go out and work on these movies and Teach them the skills and the craft and the trade of moviemaking. And so he did it with Brian Banks and he's already starting to work on new projects and new movies and that's going to be the next iteration.

Yeah. Wow. You know what? We could, you and I, we said this last time, we can go on and on because endlessly things to talk about. In fact, I didn't even get to wanna. I wanted to, but didn't get to speaking about your career in tennis and the inner game. I went and dug this book up, the Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Calloway. So you folks, you just have to go out and check out this book. It's. It's spectacular. It was written, I think in 72 or 73. It sold millions and millions of copies. In it, it really is about the mindset of not just tennis, but of life and how it is that we all have this capacity. In fact, this is where I'll do my best to connect a few dots here. We have the capacity to learn. We're natural learners. It doesn't matter what age we are. In fact, the magic of that book is a book about teaching tennis, about the pedagogy of how you view are training someone to play tennis well, is that you keep the instruction kind of limited. You don't really speak a lot or show them, you know, sort of make a lot of changes to what they're doing. You just allow them to watch, to witness and what they learn by witnessing someone else in holding a tennis racket and swinging the tennis racket. There's so much that we learn naturally just by watching and then trying ourselves to do it. So I'd say this will be my attempt at connecting those dots. You want to look out in the community, whatever community, I mean, in Memphis, it's great because this, as you said, because there's such a commitment culturally to giving and leading with the heart. I'd say that you can look in lots of places for good examples. You know, whether it's people like the founders of Independent bank or any of these organizations that I was so fortunate to come in contact with, you can just look to those organizations for a model of what that looks like and then learn from that simply by watching. But wherever you are, in whatever community you're in, look and see who is it that you truly respect, what organization, what, including business organizations, do you think are really modeling something that is worthy or that you believe is just you're doing the right thing? I don't know. That has baked it in right to go back to that has baked doing the right thing into the model and then follow on some level what you see because you don't have to reinvent it, you don't have to reinvent the wheel in this instance. You can just look at some of the great examples. And I know recently, Microsoft, for example, they experimented with a four day workweek and found that, you know, their production, their productivity went up by 40% and they dropped their cost. And meanwhile, people have a three day weekend and have time, they've baked it into their model to give people time to recover, to do things they want to do. So somebody that says, hey, I'd love to go volunteer, but man, with a working five days a week and having the kids and everything else on the weekend, I just don't have the time. Well now there's no quote excuse for it anymore of course, but more I think to the point the company's actually stepped up, almost like a pseudo or a surrogate parent would to provide that opportunity to then give back or to do something that your heart calls you to do. So I think those are great examples. And I would ask you the last question here, Jeremy is rituals are really powerful. We talk about that in terms of how do you build resilience and how do you build change or transformation into your life? It's, it's by creating new rituals, conscious habits. What's one ritual that you've consistently, or maybe something new that you've adopted, you feel really just support you with everything you've got going on. What's one of those rituals?

So before I answer that I want to go back and mention because you talk about, you know, just kind of steps that people can take. And one obviously is writing down their purpose because I think this is really helpful for people is write down your purpose. Two is look at and that can be working with seniors, with kids, with sports, with art. So knowing kind of where you stand. Two is looking at where you have availability. And I think, you know, the average person looks at their cell phone 120 plus times a day. You've got time, even if it's 30 minutes, where you can carve out and being intentional and this will get to my ritual, but being intentional about where you can carve out time and make that your impact time, make that your time that you can either serve or go look at something positive in the community, that you can share something positive in the community. But that's time that you block out on your calendar to be intentional about the difference that you want to make within that purpose statement. And then you start looking at the nonprofits that serve in that space and volunteering. And that's where the magic really comes about is, you know, starting to raise your hand to be a part of the solution. And when you raise your hand, amazing things happen because you see the beauty, you meet amazing people, and you get to see the impact that you can make. And I'll give you one little thing real fast too I'm thinking about is how easy this is. If you're watching football or you're watching basketball or any of the things you're going to invite your friends and family over anyway, make it a give back event by saying, hey, we're going to have food and drinks and whatever you would spend on lunch or dinner, we're going to put that in to this pot and we're going to give it to this nonprofit. I had a friend that did that over the course of the NFL season. He raised $15,000 by just having friends and family over watching football games.

Yeah.

And he was blown away at how easy it was, how fun it was, and also too, how he inspired other people that were coming over his house to be philanthropists themselves because they started hosting their own beneficial watch parties. And we do it on our end. You know, we have Christmas parties that benefit American Cancer Society. We have parties at our house that benefit United Way. We do everything that when you come over to our house or when you do things, we have a higher purpose. And so my point is look at the things you're already doing and add that purpose to them and you'll realize you don't have to separate them out. So then getting to your point on.

Rituals by the Jeremy, thank you so much for giving us such a practical example of what it looks like to be able to bake that in to your personal. Just your personal life, really. Yeah.

And I mean, I think that's where for me, this is the kind of stuff that I love. But this is, you know, we're talking while you're here is the questions that you get asked a lot. And I get asked a lot by people that just say, I want to serve, I want to make a difference. I just don't know where to start. And so this is where you start. And so kind of giving them this roadmap, unpacking it, but making it practical for them because I feel like there's so many things that are. And you know, I put it out on social media like the, you know, you get the inspirational kind of words of wisdom. But how do you really like actually make it practical? How do you take that next step? And that's where to me the real fun of it is. Okay, yeah, let's. I could give you 30 concrete examples, pick and choose which one you want to do and then take it on your on your own way. But I feel like that's where we as a society miss the mark is if we don't really give you the actual tools, we don't help you and we just kind of. If we just inspire you, but we don't actually hand the playbook to you. We miss our chance to really create the impact and the meaning and the purpose and to win your heart. So that's why to me it's so important. But anyway, rituals, yeah, I've got a lot of them in terms of even like waking up and what I do and how I look at my day. But one of them is actually carving out 30 minutes every single day where I do nothing but focus on either sharing positive messages. Actually. Well, one in particular. I do it every week, but I carve out intentional time to mentor. And so I usually will leave a couple of hours every week to just purely nothing other than just trying to. If people have questions and they want to sit down, I have those time. I block out time for certain things that are really, really important to me. I do. This isn't kind of ritual, but it ties into it is I don't go to bed until I do three things every single day. That's a positive step forward. And this is something I created in college to be able to do all the things that I wanted to do. But to this day, answering emails doesn't count unless it's something that's a big positive step forward. But those are all just like the blocking and tackling, right? I'm talking about something that, that really does. Like you write a column or you meet someone new that can put you in a whole new trajectory. You extend that invitation to meet someone new, whatever it is, putting yourself out there to finish a project, to do something special. But ultimately that's going to take a step forward. Not a lateral move, but a step forward. And for me, it's what can I do personally, professionally, for our city? And so that's a big piece of it now is doing three things that help our city.

City.

But I don't go to bed. And that's where it could be. 2am but I'm not going to bed until I've literally checked off. I've got a checklist those three things that I felt like, all right, that's one, that's two. That's three. I can go to bed now. And so I feel like the safe place on my end of carving out the time to be intentional with the philanthropy and the giving back. I block out. I'm like you, where I block out time to. Whether it's exercise, meditation. I'm. Sadly, I don't really do a lot of the meditation on my end. I need to. But more my medica. My meditation really is like swimming or where I can calm the mind. And, you know, my wife will kind of get on. She's like, you've got, you know, 40 minutes. We've got to be at this thing. And I'm like, trust me, babe. I'm gonna get in the pool, I'm gonna power through these laps. Because it's important.

You and I are brothers from other mothers, man. Because, yeah, it's just I drive my wife nuts with stuff like that diving in.

She's like, wow, you knocked that out fast. I'm like, I know, but it's. It's the intentionality of. I know that that's what I need to. And obviously, we talk about it in the sense that you can't give to others what you don't have yourself.

Exactly.

And I've got to protect my energy and my time. And if my energy isn't good, I can't give you the energy that's going to inspire and help you and push you to do good. And so that's where I think creating the intentionality of safeguarding those places, schedule wise, energy wise is really, really, to me, important so that in the end, I can really help others. Yeah.

We have to manage our. Among. Among the myriad things that we'd call our responsibilities in life. I think key or first in that is managing our own energy. You could call it attitude. You and I had lots of conversation about this and managing. Even in a company, having done that myself for many years, it's less about managing people, and it's more about managing energy and managing attitude in that organization. So I so appreciate that ritual, those rituals that you shared. I wrote a bunch of them down. I'm sure people have been writing feverishly for the last 40 minutes as we wind down. And I share my waking ritual. I have a question for you, Jeremy. Did you wake up today?

Absolutely.

Yeah. I could tell. It's. Yeah. Sometimes we wonder just how my. How awake are we? A little. Little groggy physically. But also, you know, what's our State of consciousness because we can get sucked into that vortex of the TV or the news cycles that we see all over the place and certainly through social media. And they suck us in, I think, on. Well, it's part of their business model.

To suck us in.

That's exactly what they're after. So it's really important that we do allow ourselves the opportunity to wake up. And at the same time, it really is a blessing because when you went to bed last night, Jeremy, was there any guarantee that you'd wake up today? Nope, not for me either, sadly.

I know that. I know that firsthand. So to your point, it's. It is a blessing to be able to wake up. And you don't want to take that for granted.

No. So three simple steps to me in the waking ritual. The first is, is the fun one and the funny one, I guess, is, is to just literally wake up and waking up physically, but also, am I awake? Am I awake emotionally? Am I. Am I willing to feel today, for example, and be fully expressed? Is that part of what I can accomplish today and be a positive, to use your word, to create that positive step forward? Am I awake on a mental level? Is my mind ready for the interactions and the things that are possible in my experience today? And, and in that moment that we're waking up and we have this recognition that that's special because it wasn't guaranteed. And also the recognition that there are people in that moment, that you're waking up, that I'm waking up, that didn't wake up, and that makes the moment also sacred. There's a holiness to it. And I believe that we are really all spiritual beings on some at the core, and this, much less about any sort of a dogma or a set of rules about what that looks like, but that we are all connected. And so three parts to this waking ritual. Wake up. Feel. Feel that. That connection and the gratitude for the connection that we have to everything around us. To the earth, to the trees and flowers and the birds, and to other human beings, to all this divine, divine ness that's just everywhere around us. That's part two. And in part three, if you care to say it, these words have really. They've changed my experience of living in ways that I can't begin to say. So I had to write a book about it. That's what's Coming soon is a book all about this concept of these four words. And those four words are, I love my life. I love my life. Jeremy, do you love your life?

Absolutely. Absolutely. And we talked about it before, but to wake up knowing that I've got a healthy family who all are trying to make a difference in their own way, who've taken that truth to heart, that it's not about me, it's about we. And to know that what we've created as an organization with City Current, but just even for me personally, to where I actually do get to go out and help others every single day, no question, it's tough and it's frustrating and you have problems and there's, you know, all these things that life hits you with, but in the end, to know that it's got purpose and there's a higher purpose. And I'm like, you mean to know that I just look at what I do, it's not about me. God has a plan. And I'm just, I'm just out here to do my part and to help others get where they need to go. That, to me, allows me to live my life. Because in the end, the journey that we're on together, that we get to have these shared experiences, that's the part that's so enriching. And you hear all these things about. You get trapped with the goods, but yet the experiences, the relationships, that's the part where you look back and you realize, I love my life because I love the people in my life.

Yeah. Beautiful, beautiful brother. Yeah. So there it is. The opportunity to love your life no matter what. Everybody, this has been another episode of the Conscious Pivot podcast. What a blessing. I'll say ciao for now and of course, feel free to hit us up on Facebook at the StartMyPivot group. You can leave a comment@adammarkelle.com podcast because we love to respond to those things and get your feedback, of course, but have a beautiful rest of the day or evening. Have it deliver all the positive blessings that we were talking about today and many, many more. Ciao for now, everybody. Bye bye.

Thanks for listening, everyone. We hope you now have the tools and greater insights to navigate your own Pivot. Help us inspire others by sharing this episode and leaving your comments over@adammarkel.com podcasts for more tips, strategies and support as you consciously pivot into a new business and lifestyle you love. Join our Pivot community on facebook@pivotfb.com.