What Happens When Community Involvement Becomes Core to Your Business

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As a business owner, I truly feel that we have a responsibility to our communities. I know that is big for you, Chrissy.

Yeah.

You're smiling much more than you were for last week's episode when we were talking about something, something, something, something, something. Yeah. Community responsibility to me is it's twofold. It is A, it is a responsibility, but B, it's kind of one of my favorite things.

It's so much fun.

Yeah. How do you have fun with it? How do you do it? I think we're gonna have fun today.

Yeah.

Stay tuned. She's the CEO.

He's the marketing and operations guy.

If it's broken, you need the business fix. The mood change.

Uh huh. Bink. Bink.

Just pegged from one direction to the other. Rather entertaining. Chrissy, what do you have that is going on that is entertaining? Exciting? I mean, there's always something good.

It's a travel season for me, so I have several conferences. Going to Alberta. We're going to be in Lake Louise for a week for a conference and then I get to go back. Yeah. A. And then I get to go to Kansas City. So like. Yeah. Two totally different places. So.

Yeah.

Another week long.

Well, yeah, they are different, but a lot of wheat. Yeah, just wheat. They have wheat in common.

Okay.

At least not. Not necessarily in the city as much, but around there, I haven't been to.

Either one ever, so I'm just super excited to be somewhere different. So.

Good.

What about you? What's going on?

It's starting to get colder.

Yes.

Rainier?

Darker.

Dark. Oh, darker. Yes.

I'm married to someone who's like, there's only eight hours of sunlight. There's only 10 hours. Like he counts down every day.

Oh, that's. That's helpful.

Yeah, I know. We're working on it.

Does he, does he do the opposite in the spring?

Yes.

Oh, well, good, good. That's. Okay. So that's just going into the dark ages and out of the dark age. No, I get it. To me though, I Do love the four seasons that we have here in Ohio because, like, part of it's some relief is summer. We try and get so much done. We're always doing stuff. I'm always like, can I go for a ride today? Can't really squeeze it in, but I'm going to anyways. Like, going into this time of year is kind of like the. Okay. Can't like yard work. It's cold, damp, and wet. You're not doing that side. Not doing anything to house. So it. I don't want to say life slows down a little bit, but it does. So I. I don't love it, but I also need the break.

Yeah, I get it.

There's still a ton of projects, though, that we can do for the community.

Yeah.

Just as soon as I say community, your face is like, I get so excited. You do. The thing that I love about it is my business. We're involved a lot of stuff in the community. I know you're involved. You have been for eons. Involved in the community. That's like a core thing that you guys do. It's not just good for the community. No, it's good for business in a lot of ways, too. And it's. It's one of those things that it's tough not to feel warm and fuzzy about. Something that is good for the community, good for the. I mean, if it's just good for everyone, just do it. We always say, like, in my business, success is a shared thing. You've heard me say that ad nauseam. It's not just bad wall art.

No.

For me. And one of the ways that I always look at it is it's not just what you achieve, but help others achieve. You guys are well known for your commitments. I mean, in the community, throughout the community, throughout multiple communities, not only successful in the business, but you guys typically are pretty successful in any community engagement programs or anything like that you guys work on. It typically goes off pretty darn well.

Oh, thanks.

How do. Like, that's not just, hey, guys, community project. Come up with something and expecting it to happen.

Yeah. No.

How do you make this happen successfully?

Yeah, there's a few things. I mean, first is aligning your mission with community impact. So it's part of. I mean, your mission statement. Sounds great. It's got wall art, you know, all the things. But if it doesn't really show up in the community, if it's. If the action isn't there, the fruit isn't there, it's just a tagline. So, I mean, for us, there's a bunch of different things that we do at AUI and Clarity. One is collaboration. So we look at, you know, how can we serve in the community and how can we be collaborative? Sometimes it's with clients, sometimes it's with just community leaders to work on specific things that help drive our organization and our community and in general forward. So, I mean, community is a core value of AUI and Clarity. So we believe that serving the community is just as important as doing business in the community. So finding the right type of purpose, the things that we can do together as an organization is important. And then also, I mean, we celebrate and incentivize our team members to serve in the ways in which they want to, because not everybody's going to want to go wash dogs at the dog shelter. Not everybody's going to want to go clean up litter at the soapbox derby. So we give them the ability to track their hours. We say, you know, if you're serving on a board, if you're serving in your church, or in a different way, if you're coaching Little League, keep track of those hours. And then the individual that has the most hours, at the end of the year, we give them a thousand dollars donation to the charity of their choice. So then we're not just incentivizing people to say, hey, come work for us so that we can go do these great projects together, but saying, you're doing these things on your own. Good job. How can we celebrate and support you, too?

That's awesome.

Make it a big boat.

Oh, yeah. And I mean, to me, like, how does. How do, like, values play into that? I mean, like, we talk about values. We talk about, like, the company culture. I know you've got it as a value.

Yeah. I mean, you show up in your community. The way you show up in the community should directly reflect the values that you have. So if we say we care about people, it doesn't stop with payroll. It should show up in how we invest, how we do things, and in the place that we do business. Well, we paid you, so, I mean, for us, some of that also means that we don't just donate. We don't just write checks to organizations. We fully participate. And, you know, your community work should feel like an extension of your culture. It's not just a PR opportunity. And I think you can see that in the operations. On the tactical side, when you see it in social media, you can tell when people are serving and there's a photo and they're like, I got paid to be here or we truly enjoy what we're doing. So, I mean, like, for us, we believe that businesses, and this is really me, I believe that businesses have a platform and the resources to make a difference. And so with that comes responsibility. And so when it shows up in our values, these are the things that we're going to do, Whether it's sponsoring events, mentoring youth, helping organizations strengthen their HR practices and their benefits, which is what we do. It all stems from a belief that serving the community is just as important as doing business in the community.

Why?

Because that makes the world better. And.

No, I. It is.

It's simple. It's because a better environment in general creates. You create a better work environment, you create better opportunities within the economy. You create a better place to live and work. And when you want, when you're able to do that, I think you're able to cement your culture, and it makes you, as a business owner, want to continue to go to work every day. I mean, we talk about in resilient operating system, how philanthropy and having something else be beyond making money, beyond doing the thing that makes you want to get up every day and work in your business. And so for me, that's community. That's how can I make an impact? How can I make the world that we live in a better place? Not just for me, not just for my employees, but for my children and for my children's children and my children's children's children. Because I like it here. I want to stay here. I want it to be a great place to remain here. So it's all about sustainability. Too foreign?

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I'll give you a few seconds to go to the website while we get ready to get back to the show. I. I love how you put that because the. To me, the passion for it just comes out in your voice. This is the. It's the good excitement like the last episode, the social media that was the Bad excitement.

That was the anxious. That's anxiety.

That was. Oh, this is the truly excited. Truly. Like, I like, ready to just burst at the seams doing this. I know you talked about the rewards and stuff like that. How do you make sure, though, that, like, people are feeling good about it? I know you said, like, letting them pick some of it, but you guys do some group stuff too, don't you?

We do. So, I mean, you're talking about, you know, empowering employees, engaging with purpose. So if your community work isn't showing up in your employee experience, you're missing the point. Your employees need to be able to be. If you're doing community work, your employees should be engaged in it, too. So we give our team space and encouragement to kind of serve in those different ways that are meaningful to them because, again, it builds pride, it builds connection. So we celebrate their gifts. Because not everybody is going to want to serve in the same way. That can include, you know, volunteer time off. We have group service days. There are certain things that align with our business that we have worked on. A great one that we talk about is, you know, we're. We're in a safe drug disposal program. We are just a distribution partner for Summit county community partnership within our region in helping individuals safely dispose of their medications. So we hand out, whether it's at community events that we're at, networking events, organizations can come to us as a distributor and we'll give them boxes to take and distribute out to their employees. But they're pouches where you can put opiates or any other type of medication. You open the pouch, put it in, mix it with water, and then it is biodegradable, safe to be disposed of in a landfill. You're not flushing your medication, which you're not supposed to do.

Correct.

But it's something that enables us to kind of. It's. It's helping the community. It's also helping our customers because we work with. I mean, in the insurance space, you're going to have people that may be on medications. So sometimes they're not going to need to use those medications anymore because they got healthy or they had a medication change. So how do you safely dispose of those? So this is part of the education that we do as well. So that's a partnership that has been in. We've had that partnership since 2017, and we continue to be a distribution partner for them. And again, it's serving the community, doing business in the community, and it enables us to do both because we're working with Some of our individuals that are over 65, this is a great way to say, hey, do you need this? So it's a great resource.

What's one of your longest standing ones that you guys have been involved with? You knew I was going to ask a crazy hard, difficult, off the wall question because that's what I do. Chrissy.

I know. And so I would say Community Partnership is probably one of the longest ones that's on continuously ongoing. There have been a few others where we have served like on a board capacity and then we've kind of done some, some additional work with them. But I would say community partnership is one. We've done work extensively with the Soapbox Derby. So we have, we help them on different cleanup days. We've been a donor for them for years. Another one that's been in, in board service but then also in, you know, donation time, talent, treasure and connecting them to other business owners. He's been Better Business for Business Leaders podcast, Better Business for Small Business Leaders, whatever it is. I can't remember the name of my own podcast. Doesn't matter.

She's that excited about it and that excited about it. She can't remember her own podcast.

She can't. So Chris Canova, Jobs for Ohio graduates, he's the executive director.

As soon as you started to talk.

About, you know, I'm going to talk about jog. And so JOG has been, we've had a relationship for a long time. They've been an AUI customer. They've been a Clarity customer. They were part of the reason why we started Clarity hr, but different collaborative relationships with them because they work with students that help. I mean, they advance people into work. So helping students find jobs, helping students decide what career path they're going to be on so that they can keep and retain good employment. So they have an internship program. They have a Jobs Good Challenge program. I mean, there's so many different things. I know you have worked with JOG in the past, had a very awesome success story with a JOG student.

Yes.

What I love about their organization is that they are, I want to say, almost 40 years of meeting their outcomes year over year. And that as a nonprofit is amazing. Yeah, they crush it. So not only do they and they put their, their work and their money where their mouth is, they, they do the work. So I would say JOG is probably our longest standing organization that we have continued to support. And then there's all the work that we do. I do personally with the Summit County Alcohol, Drug Addiction, Mental Health Services Board and that tends to ripple. It started as a result of some of the work that we did with Summit County Community Partnership. So.

Sure.

Yeah. What about you?

Oh, I have to follow that.

Yeah. And I'm like, there's more that some of them just come into my mind again. I'm like, oh, what about that one? I'm just. Shut up.

No, but to me that. That's what's so amazing about it is. And that shows like how involved you guys are with that type of stuff and your passion for it. To me, it. We do the. We look at it from the same type of thing. For us, we like. It's easier for us to do a lot of pro bono work.

Yeah.

There are groups, there are charities. There are. I mean we help Main Street Barberton, right downtown here. Barberton. To help promote. I mean if we help promote the businesses around us. Holy cow. I mean, not only are we helping promote other businesses.

Exactly.

But this is going to build up the area that we're in. How is that not a win for everyone? This afternoon I am actually headed to talk to the local fire department. They have a levy coming up. They're like, hey, we'd just like to do a couple of quick videos. Awesome. Let's do a couple of quick videos for you. So that way you can make sure people know what you're going to be spending the money on. Totally makes sense for us. I mean the pro bono stuff that we're able to do is to me it's meaningful because it gives these like small non profits and other small organizations that don't have the budget and reach.

Yeah.

The reach that some others may not have. And for us that the. It's once again for. It's the same thing that you get the pure joy of working with some of these people.

Yeah.

The fact that like in my town, when the fire chief comes up and is like, hey, how's it going? Great to see you. And like I've become friends with these people and it's. It's not just because we offered the video. It's. We've genuinely made that connection and it's made the community better.

Yes.

Those are the types of things that to me are a big benefit for the community. Now on the flip side of that too, internally, if we're going to test something that might be a little bit outside of our wheelhouse, guess what, we're going to do it on the people that we're doing it for free for.

Exactly.

Hey, if we're going to try a new technique With a video. Sure. We'll try it on the video that we're doing for free.

Yes.

We're not going to do it on the video that we're charging 15 grand for.

No. Correct.

Hey, this didn't quite turn out. Hope you like what we know if it doesn't turn out there. Granted everyone's time is still valuable but it allows us the ability to try and do unique and cool things for others. That's very low risk for us. Very low risk for them. And it works out really, really well for everyone in the long run. The other thing when you said like do you coach a little league team the thing or sponsor them if you have any like community facing, like if you have any retail side of you at all.

Yeah.

To me that's a no brainer.

Absolutely.

To, to have your name on a bunch of little kids jerseys running around is just amazing.

Yeah.

And not just to have your name on the jersey show up to the game.

Yes.

Pring oranges and you will have raving fans for. It's amazing how much $6 worth of oranges can get you in terms of, in terms of great PR. Not to mention just 100% the feel goods that you are going to walk away from with that.

Yeah.

One of the things that I love about it too is like the ability to build from youth.

Yes.

Hopefully you're planning on having your business be around for more than five, six, seven years. If you connect with the youth of the day, they're going to know you today, tomorrow and when you're finally like when they're of age to be clients of yours, be customers of yours. Um, additionally those kids have parents.

They do.

But I mean still to me nothing is more rewarding than seeing the smiles on those faces to see the kids learn. I used to be a volunteer for as a high school soccer coach.

Okay.

And the people that I came in contact, the people that the both the kids and the parents were absolutely amazing. And I guarantee you that I learned far more from those kids.

Yeah.

Than they ever learned from me. I mean they already knew how to run. I just had to scream at them to do it occasionally. So I mean to me the big pieces with that, I mean you can have those. Like the other thing that I like with it is there's that shared success.

Yes.

You coach a little league team, you show up, they win. Guess what you won with them. It's. And it's the same thing with any charity, any non profit, any, anyone that you can help.

Yeah.

When they win you, you had a hand in that. It's huge.

Yeah. And I think it drives you forward when things can get difficult in your business or when things get hectic in your schedule and you're like, you know what? I'm looking forward to this.

Oh, 100%.

I have this. I'm going to go coach this or I'm going to go to this meeting, or I'm going to help this nonprofit like it. I feel like there are times where it makes the real stress of being an entrepreneur more palatable because you've got something beyond you that is important. If you're a small business owner navigating the world of marketing or looking to establish yourself as an industry expert, you already know the power of a great podcast.

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Back to the show.

The other thing that I have found is that it is a huge mindset shift, like when you're able to donate work to help others.

Yeah.

It lets you know what really, really matters. It resets. We, we've done work for a number of non profits that, I mean, help various people in various stages of life. And just what you get out of that is like, okay, I, I had a rough day today, but it really wasn't a rough day like when you compare it with so many other people. So to have that, the other thing that the other two pieces that I'll cover with that real quick are one thing is the brand. Storytelling is. You've made it a piece of your brand and the services that you guys offer. People know that you are in service of your clients because you are also in service of your community. I want to work with people like that.

Yeah.

That's who I, if I see someone that I know is helping the community and someone that's just bought a, I mean, there's a. You can have both. But if I, if there's someone that I know is giving Back to the community. And there's someone else that just bought their eighth car. Well, guess what? I'm probably going to go to the people that are giving back to the community. Just.

It's a differentiator for you, right?

It is a differentiator for me. The other thing is, too, is, I mean, people want to buy and from businesses that share their values.

They do.

And that. Once again, that comes down to that differentiator. I just talk about if you see that people are giving back to their community there. I mean, here in Barberton, there are some people that just, I mean, pour their lives into this community.

Yeah.

Which is absolutely amazing to watch. The fact that we've had a small piece in that is, to me, I'm just blown away by all of that. When customers see you, like, in spaces that they care about, like schools, non profits, do you feel like there's that emotional connection? Like, because what's funny is, is when, like, do you connect with people on like a. Hey, I'm not just Chrissy the CEO.

Yeah. Most of the time, people know me as not Chrissy the CEO. And then they're like, oh, wait, you do other things. You have this podcast.

Oh, you work.

Oh, you work.

Yeah. Only like 90 or 100 hours a week.

It's been interesting because I think, I mean, community work can be. It's a very long game, but it's the best game that I play. I love it so much. And I think that now with where I am and sitting, I'm chairing the ADM board, I'm in a couple of other positions where I've got some significant space to make impact. It took a long time to get there. And now people are like, they see me in that space and they're like, oh, wait, what do you do? What else do you do during the day? So I think that's. That's part of it.

Laundry.

It's like laundry. Occasionally I record a podcast and there. But then there's that expertise of, like, how did you. So you're doing this? It seems like you know a lot of stuff. How did you learn all this stuff? I'm like, well, actually, I own a business and these are the other things that. So it's credibility. I'd say, yeah. Most of the time, people. It's getting to the point now, Josh, where people know me as full person, but it used to be, especially when I was young and starting to volunteer and starting to do work, they knew me as either Chrissy the employee at AUI or they knew Me as Chrissy the torchbearer. There was no. Now it's as, I think as you mature in your career and you start moving up in. In levels of leadership within even the nonprofit space, people see you as whole person, so.

Sure.

But there's still some that are like completely. It's more like around the kid stuff. Like if I'm in some place with kid things, they're just like, who are you? So like. Like, I'm just Manny, Caleb, mom.

So here, watch my podcast.

Three quarters of. Yeah, I'm. I'm one quarter of Team Awesome Sauce. So, I mean, it's just. Yeah.

Watch the podcast.

Yeah. What about for you?

It's interesting. I've. I've been involved with some things over the years and when I look back at it, it's always been in this like, background esque role and I've enjoyed that.

I liked being in the background. I pushed to the front the last couple years and I was like, oh, hi.

Right. Right. Um, when I look at what I did with elves and more when I looked at some of the stuff, like there's. There's this been this background role which I've appreciated. Yeah, we're media, we do a lot. I mean, I spend a ton of time on camera. You now are spending a ton of time on camera. You're welcome. Is whether you want to or not.

Yeah.

Here you are. Is. So no, it's nice for me to be able to sit back and, and kind of be like, okay, and once again, instead of the, like, you're being pushed to the front again here. I'm still in some of the stages with a lot of this where I could be like, hey, how can I help? Yeah, tell me what to do and I will mindlessly go do the thing that you need help with. I'll use my skills to the best of my ability, but tell me what you need me to do. I don't need to come up with the ideas because right now I am coming up with in the business, all the ideas as the leader, I am coming up with the ideas. So it's nice to be able to be in service in that way for me, if once again, it feels great and it's a great way to kind of mentally be like, oh, yeah, this is. This is boots on the ground. I like this. How do you find community partners that align with your business values? Because there's obviously all sorts of charities out there. There's all sorts of partners that you could be involved with. There's all sorts of Whoever's. How do you be like, oh, that one. And know that it's the right fit?

Well, I mean, have clarity on your values first. So you gotta know who you are.

Not just wall art.

No, you gotta know who you are.

That's my new favorite thing. Can you tell?

I feel like I've made a major impact that you keep saying it, so it makes me happy. Yes. So, I mean, getting clear on your values, so looking and then looking for organizations that potentially align with your values. And what I will tell you is that you don't want to chase prestige. You chase alignment. So I think there are a lot of individuals who can look at community service and go, this is really. And I'm going to just say it. The Fortune 50s that are like, you must serve on a board, and it must be the largest board, and you must be on this board and this board. And I'm not going to say any of them. I won't be mad at me. But, like, you can tell they're there because they are checking a box within their organization. When you're the business owner and you're in a small business, you get choice. So find the organization that is. That is important to you, and it doesn't have to be the biggest one. Sometimes you can make the most impact in the smallest organization possible. I will say, for me, we started doing that work with Community Partnership in how we could safely dispose of drugs and deal with things in the opiate epidemic. I am passionate about mental health because I lost my first husband to suicide. So looking in, where do we fit within the greater landscape? Community Partnership was a really great spot. And I met the person that did their business development. She's somewhere else now, but she did their business development. We met at a networking event, and then I slowly got involved there. And then it led to, you know, moving into bigger spaces, being able to ask. And now I'm serving on the ADM board and we're working on, you know, how do we transform mental health and the delivery system that is in Summit county and beyond? And that started with just something very small. And, you know, we're just gonna dispose of drugs safely. We're not gonna flush them down the toilet. And so I tell you, like, find something that aligns with your values. Find something that they truly need your help. Because that's the other part. I don't know if you care, but I want people if they. I want. Not only want to be wanted, but I want to be able to prove value and give value to people. And if I can't give value to you, then I don't think it's worth my time because then you just. I mean, I can write a check to anybody. It doesn't mean I'm going to, but I can write because again, I get a lot of asks and we do a lot, but the check's easy. The time, I think, as an entrepreneur is what is so much more valuable and what is, I think, more rewarding to you.

So 100.

Half. That's what I'll tell. I mean, this is it. Business owners. Business owners, give them your time because they really need your knowledge more than anything.

100. And the other thing that I have found with that is there's two pieces to that. First off, I worked with the homeless in a charity that I was on the board of years ago, and I learned so much from those people that I worked with about perspective and about different situations, and it made me able. Like, I have transferred so many of those skills that I learned in working with directly with those people. You would not believe in how working with homeless translates to being able to work with other CEOs. Better.

Yes.

It was huge. The other thing with that is too, is you also get to see how another organization works.

Yes.

And I have pulled so many other ideas from other organizations that I have been involved in. Additionally, when you volunteer on a time basis, if you write the check, you feel good when you write the check.

Yeah.

If you volunteer on a time basis, the feel good lasts far longer.

Oh, yeah.

Than when you write the check.

Yeah.

You come, you go home from something. I remember charity that I used to be involved with. Elves and more. We would. The Sunday before Christmas, we would surprise a neighborhood with anywhere from a thousand to twelve hundred bicycles just show up. Obviously, we would go into neighborhoods that needed a win. I would go home frozen, in many cases, soaking wet, exhausted, and grinning from ear to ear.

Absolutely.

And granted, it was an emotional roller coaster because you go from grinning to crying. Grinning, crying, grinning, crying. Everyone's like, is he nuts? No, he just had a. Had a long day. But the, the things that you pull away from that are so amazing and once again, so transferable.

Yeah.

That to me, it's. It's one of those things where. How can you not do that?

Yes.

It's an investment in them and it's an investment in yourself. I love the fact on the Celebrate the, The. The engagement piece that you talked about. That is awesome. The. It's. I know most people don't do these types of things for the recognition in the same sense to acknowledge them and say thank you in some way, shape or another, publicly.

Yes.

Is very cool.

Thanks. Well, I think there's several ways to do it too. And we've done this at AUI and Clarity. And so I'm going to share them with you whether you like to hear them or not.

Oh, no. I'm excited.

So last year we turned 50 as an organization. So we did 50x.

Not me, the organization.

The organization. Not there yet. Making progress. Not there yet. So we did 50 acts of service. Actually did more than 50 to celebrate our 50 years. And we did memorialize those. We don't always like, post everything that we do, but we do post a fair amount. Because my thought is because service and community are core values of ours, because community is so important to us, I think it's important that our clients and the rest of the world knows we put our money where our mouth is. We put our time where our mouth is. And these are the organizations that we support. And you should support them too, because they're awesome. So we did the 50 acts. We kept track of all of them. We did videos, I think, and then bringing everything into the organization. It gave us the ability to do a community impact report so we could send it to our clients in a newsletter. Hey, thank you for being our clients. Because you giving us money enables us to do the things that we're doing and give these organizations money and then also give them some of our time, talent, treasure. So there was that. And then also losing my train of thought. What was it? It's gone.

That's okay.

It's gone. Yeah.

Because I want to get to a couple of actionable things.

Do you? Okay, let's talk about them.

The one I want to start with is the. Start small.

Yes.

So, and here's why I say this, because the. The biggest obstacle that I see, so many people that are like, well, I don't know how I can help. They will find a way.

Oh, yeah.

They'll tell you for you to help. They have 10,000 ways for you to help.

They have a list, right?

They have 10 lists. Every charity, every nonprofit, every community organization has 10 different lists of these are the things that we need.

Yeah.

The one you said, washing dogs. I mean, people like, I don't know how to do that. They will show you. They will show you 100%. They will show you. I used to walk dogs. Loved it. There's just so many ways that there's a minimal amount of training needed for 99.9% of the things that are needed. Pick someone and say, hey, I'd love to help. Leave it at that. Let them tell you how you can help. You may be underutilized for a long time. That's awesome because you know what? You're still doing something amazing. This is the, this is the start small piece is the one that I obviously am going losing my mind on because I give, I hear from people.

Why?

I just don't know where to start. Just pick something. There's 10,000 of them. Throw a dart at a dartboard. Yeah, it does.

Ask if you really. I mean, this is what we talked about social media last week. This is one of those, hey, are there any community organizations that I can get involved with? And let your network tell you options. If you don't want to do the.

Search yourself, ask if you don't end up with a couple of hundred responses to a post like that, especially if you put it in a community board.

Please Tag me on LinkedIn. I will give you like 12 to.

20 correct tomorrow without even thinking about it.

No. And then I'll tag all of them and I'll tag their executive directors and their development people and their volunteer coordinators and you will, you will not be bored.

If you want spammed, let Chrissy. No, it's truly it is. And you will find something that, that and I also, with a start small is do something that maybe a little outside of your comfort zone. I'm a bit of a germaphobe. Working with the homeless was not an easy one for me, but boy, did it help me.

Yeah.

Alignment.

Yes. Pick something that aligns with your values as an organization. If you're going to make it public, if you're not going to make it public, then that's, that's perfectly fine. But if you're going to share, make sure it's something that aligns with your values as an organization. And there are some organizations that we give to as a family that we don't give to as a company. It's just different.

Sure, 100%.

Okay.

The other thing that like to me is get your team involved. I love how you guys do it. To me to say, hey, look, is that like, first off, ask your team, is there something they would like to be involved in? Because if you can support them in something that they want to be involved.

In, oh, the engagement is huge.

It's. I mean, you have an employee for life at that point. But secondly. So first off, to support them in that. But secondly is to get them involved and just be like hey, we're going to do this. Would you like to come along and do this too?

Yes. And if you don't have. If you don't know how to do that, there are organizations locally that can even help you get involved. Like, BVU is a great one. They've got a small business engagement team where they teach small business leaders how to get engaged in the community and engage their teams in the community.

Yep. The thing that you have been brilliant about is telling the story of what you guys are doing.

Yeah.

Because you guys. I mean, it's. It. It. It. It's well planned, it's well thought out. You tell the story with it.

It took a long time to get there to be able to figure out how to tell the story. But. And it. It.

You guys do it in a way that says, like, here's what we're doing that you can do also to support the community. It's not. Look at us. No jazz hands. Um, because there. There is a right way and a wrong way to do it. Um, I've seen many companies be like, look at how hard we're working for our community for 10 minutes. No, no, you can see the actual engagement with it. It's. It makes a big difference. What is a. Like when you look, we both have seen good and bad community involvement.

Yeah.

I mean, it's all good. Their companies are helping communities. But how do you make sure that, like their. How do you know when someone's convened community. Community. What you have is contagious. Community involvement is authentic.

So you feel their impact.

Oh, I like that.

Yeah. You see it. So you can see it in whether it's a video, whether it's a post on social media, or it is community connection. Like, oftentimes, nonprofits will highlight who is helping them and who is volunteering. And you can tell when that is. Well, they just wrote a check or. And they did all this. So that's. I would say you feel the impact.

The did all this part. That's what I like.

I like the did all this.

Yep. Yeah. Because that's what's needed most is the time. Talent.

Yeah. Yep. So what's the simplest way a small business owner can find a community partner?

There's two ways. A. Like we talked about, post to a group and be like, hey, what can we do? The other one is, is if there is someone out there that you think, like, hey, maybe it's a home, like, for us. Maybe it's a homeless group to offer them, like, your services, be it HR services, be it media Services. Most nonprofits need the same exact thing that a normal business does not. There's someone I know. He said it beautifully. Nonprofit is a tax status, not a goal.

That is correct.

And they need help with the things that you do to. Don't. Excuse me. To donate 4 hours a month to a group like that. Holy cow. Could it be a game changer for them and it could be just a beautiful start for something for you. That's still a lot.

It is. We could do another episode on this. I'm really happy.

I. I know we could. I know we could. Maybe we'll make that like episode 52.

Okay.

Because that'll double 26. And then we'll. That's when we'll repeat.

There'll been more things.

Yeah. More things to talk about and do to everyone that's listening. We both hope you're going to go out and make an impact.

Please.

Yes. You have the tools. You have the talent. You have the time. You may not have the time, but make the time. The other thing is if you don't have the time, take the family along.

Yeah.

I know you love.

We do. We love our volunteer events when we get together.

Yeah. It's a great way to get the family all out in a place where it's tough to argue.

Absolutely.

If you are looking for more resources and maybe we even put up some of Chrissy and mine's favorite charities that you may be able to get involved with. Business. Fixpodcast.com Go there. Leave us a review on the podcast platform that you are listening to. By all means. And a review and a subscription go a long way.

Please.

Oh, you even asked nicely. Chrissy asked nicely. That. That's tough to resist. Next week, the work life balance. Is that even a topic or is that an oxymoron?

I think it's a street fight argument.

We've had a few of those recently. That being said, do me a favor. Take care of yourself. If you can take care of someone else too. We will see. See you. Very, very.