Rich Ganley

Guiding conversations with community leaders.

In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and modern moments.

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Okay, here we go.

Today's guest is like none other. He grew up in New York and was homeless at 16, but through the school of hard knocks, he became a successful entrepreneur and creator and retired at 39. He is the former CEO and current board member for Global Mobility Solutions, the co founder of Kohler Beauty Lounge and Med Spa, and the founder of the Positive Impact alliance in Gilbert. He is a dad to three adult children and his grandpa to three. With another grandkid on the way, please welcome Rich Ganley.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thank you.

We're glad you're here.

I'm glad to be here.

Awesome. So we're going to start with what we call rapid fire. Go ahead, Sarah.

Would you rather find your dream job or win the lottery?

I have my dream job and I've won the lottery, so neither.

Oh, okay.

Is that an option? Okay. What is your guilty pleasure?

Chocolate.

Would you rather host a party with.

All of your friends or enjoy a dinner for two?

Dinner for two.

Why do I always get this question? What's on your nightstand?

Pen and paper. In case I wake up in the middle of night. I have an idea. I like to write it down so I don't forget it.

Last TV show, you binge watched the.

Rookie fill in the blank. Success is freedom.

What song makes you smile?

Dreamer.

Are you more cautious or bold?

Bold.

What is your favorite rainy day activity?

Reading.

All right, final answer. What is one thing you are grateful for?

My family.

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Learn more@dignityhealth.org Arizona all right, well, let's start with that, shall we?

We shall.

Family, let's go back a bit. Rewind. Tell us about the beginning years of the family.

So my Family was a mess when I was a kid. My mom and dad divorced when I was 8 years old and never really saw my dad again. And my mom was really overwhelmed. So we had a crazy childhood in New York, and I wasn't very happy about it. So I got in a lot of trouble and wasn't a very good kid. And I had a choice to either go to reform school in upstate New York or move to Arizona, where my dad lived, who I didn't know very well.

How many kids in the family?

3. A younger brother and a younger sister.

Okay, and so because you're here, I'm gonna guess you went to Arizona.

I went to Arizona. It was better than Kitty prison.

Okay, Right.

So when I moved here, I moved in with my dad, who had married again and had two other children that were about my age, and we didn't really get along very well. So at about almost 16 years old, I was asked to leave the house and sort of just started living on my own since I was 16.

Where in the Valley were you?

I went to Chaparral High School. When I first moved out here, which was a culture shock from New York, open campus and outdoors, and it was really nice. And then I lived in Scottsdale. I rented a little piece of a floor of a guy's room at Miller and Camelback area when I was still finishing high school.

Interesting.

During those days, how did you get by? What were you doing to make ends meet at that time?

Well, I had all kinds of odd jobs. I worked at the Jack in a Box. I was a pots and pans washer. I was a prep cook. Just did whatever I could to make ends meet and just finish school.

What motivated you to finish school? Like I would suspect in that situation, most kids, I'm thinking of myself probably would have just like and often done something else. But you stayed in school?

You know, I did. I didn't really think about that. I just thought that's the thing to do was to finish high school at least.

Okay.

Then I did go to college and I went for a week and I said, geez, I should have paid attention.

In high school, what did your mom and dad do as professions?

My dad was in the automotive finance industry and my mom was a stay at home mom.

Yeah, that's its own business in itself.

That's right.

Yeah. Okay, cool.

And then when they got divorced though, she was a bus driver, a waitress, and a night shift worker.

And she was still in New York?

Yeah, she was still. All three of us lived with my mom, and it Was out of control.

Yeah. How did you. After you moved out here, so your siblings stayed back with mom, and how did. How did you stay in communication with her? What did that look like for you?

Not too much communication, really. Just sort of started a new life. There's a lot of history back in New York and sort of just started fresh in Arizona and started with a blank slate. Yeah.

So if I got this right, 16, you're out on your own. Is that where the homelessness kind of came into play?

Yeah, just kind of living on the street, living where I could. Renting a room for where I could, and just sort of scraping things together and make sure I showed up to school and went to class and then got done and worked and went home and went to bed and back to do the same thing the next day.

So was the school involved with that at all for you? I mean, usually that's the thing. Right. Like schools help find. Was that.

No. Back then that I didn't know that was a resource. So it was just sort of did it on my own.

Interesting.

Is there anyone during that time that stands out to you as a positive influence or somebody that you sort of leaned on a little bit?

Yeah. Mr. Dawson was the baseball coach at Chaparral, but I was a wrestler, but I also played indoor badminton. And so we played badminton together. And he always was a positive influence on. Don't ever give up. You can do it. You can do it and be an encouragement in my life.

What did he teach other than sports?

I think he was a social study teacher.

Okay, That's a good coaching job.

Chaparral was pretty good for a while when he was there.

Yeah. That's awesome. Okay, so you got through high school.

Got through high school, got through a week of college.

Yeah, it was a tough week. I should have paid attention in high school.

Oh, no. And then what?

Then I. Again, because I didn't have a college degree, what I learned early on was you really couldn't get a bit little legitimate type of job. My friends were getting jobs for Pfizer Pharmaceutical or for Xerox or IBM or whoever the companies were. And every time I'd go to apply for a job, they said, you have a college degree. I'm like, no, we can't hire you then. So I just did all kinds of odd things. I became a hod carrier for a while, which is basically the laborer for bricklayers. So I was stacking blocks and building scaffolds. And then I saw an ad in the paper one time to Sell to travel the country and to see all the best places in the States and to make really good money. So I signed up. And then the next day they left Arizona and we were on a road trip to Texas. And it turned out to be a door to door sales job. Selling magazines door to door. But it also turned out to be like child slave labor. This changed my mind about survival. There was a guy named Mr. Pritchett. And every morning you'd have to get up at 7am and report to. And it was the worst hotels like Hotel 6 and Motel whatever and really crappy places. And you'd show up and at the beginning of the day he would give you your docket and then assign you to a car. And that driver would drop you off in a neighborhood. And you'd have to knock doors all day and sell magazines. And then you come back at night and Mr. Pritchett would wait at the top of the table. And each person would come up one by one. And he had this big, I remember big curly hair. His shirt was down to his belly button with the gold chains. Mean guy. And if you go up there and you didn't sell much for the day, he'd stand up and smack a kid in the face. He'd just curse him out in front of everybody. And the thing was, if you sold a lot, you didn't have to share a bed with somebody else because they put usually four to six people in a room with two beds. So a lot of times if I didn't sell a lot, I'd sleep in the tub or I'd sleep on the floor. So it sort of taught me the school of hard knocks that hey, if you want to survive, you better produce, right? And so that was my first experience in a negative way on what type of person I didn't want to become as it relates to being a leader.

So how did you persevere for that? That seems like that's a lot of. A lot of stress at a young age.

And just kept going and sold. I just knocked doors. I came up with a little trick. When people. You look out that peephole in the window. If you just cover the peephole, people won't open the door. If you stand there and they see a stranger, they won't open the door. So I came up with a trick. I wet my finger and wet the peephole so it was blurry. And most of the times they'd open the door then.

I mean, what if that works with.

The ring doorbells now?

Okay, have to Bring a sign.

Oh, my gosh. I mean, I just. I can't even imagine, like, mentally what that does to someone. I honestly, like, my heart hurts for that story.

And yet I look and I think.

Look at who you are now and all that you've accomplished, probably in a lot of ways, because of that experience.

Who do you think you're more like, your mom or your dad? I'm curious. Because this drive and focus you have comes from somewhere, right?

Neither. More like my Grandma Rose. She was a 4 foot 8 dynamo that worked two jobs her whole life till she was 98 years old and just was just amazing. And so probably like Grandma Rose. And you know, what it really taught me is adversity creates victory. So as I look back now, I feel so blessed that I had a lot of adversity during my life because it made me taste and really feel the victories. So, you know, I like to think of it as From Adversity to Victory. Or like my title nowadays I've had for the last 20 years. I'm the pie. I'm the positive impact executive. You know, just bring positivity to others. And like Buddha says, you know, the secret to happiness is to help others be happy. And sort of. So when I saw that negative instance with Mr. Pritchett and selling magazines, I'm like, that's not a way to motivate people. That's not a way to treat other people. So it maybe forced me to go in a different direction.

Yeah. Okay. What comes after Mr. Pritchett?

I want to know how you got out of that.

So I did it for about two years. I was good at selling magazines.

All in Texas?

No, no. We traveled all over the country. So what they would do is you'd stay in one state for a couple of weeks until the police probably got mad at you for knocking on doors. Then they'd leave and to another state. And if you didn't sell a lot, they often would leave a kid in the state and abandon him or her there because they didn't sell enough. And they just would hire new kids and drop off kids and hire new kids. And because I sold consistently, I was treated without being abandoned somewhere. I kept going along. I got a bed.

Did the subscribers ever actually get magazines?

They did. In fact, it's funny, years later, I don't know if everyone in the audience remembers Ernest Borgnine. He's an old actor, and I had sold him a whole bunch of magazines back in the day. Fast forward to, like, 1999. I think he was a guest at the Hyatt at Gainey Ranch. And I was staying there for some reason, and the manager was a friend. He goes, hey, we've got a guy coming tonight named Ernest Borg Night. You want to meet him? I'm like, yeah, that'd be great, you know. So he came, we sat down, we started talking. He goes, you're that little son of a gun that sold me all those magazines I still get till today.

Oh, that's funny.

Wow. Yeah, it was really cool.

Made your mark, Ernest Borgnard. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Okay, so now then, let's go forward. What happens next? You get out of this. Two years later, you broke free from this somehow.

Yes. I got back to Arizona and I'm like, yeah, I need a real job. So I really couldn't find a good, real job. So I was going to become a cook. So I was a prep cook. Then I was a baker's apprentice at the Camel Back Inn. And then it dawned on me. I'm like, wait a minute. In the restaurant business, you need to work nights and weekends and holidays. And I didn't want to do that. So I said, I don't want to have that career. So then I saw an ad in the newspaper that said, how'd you like to make $300 a month guaranteed and benefits as well? So I went in and interviewed, and I actually got a job with Prudential Insurance. And then I became an insurance agent for Prudential also. The other thing that happened to me from I was always embarrassed about not having a formal education, so I really learned to self educate and I became like an avid learner, an avid reader. And today I still probably listen to one or two audiobooks every week. My kids say I cheat. They're like, dad, that's not reading. I'm like, well, I'm still learning, so that's fine too. But back then, that's sort of where things sort of changed in my head, is that I got a normal job now and I learned to be an insurance agent. So I had to go and take a test and got my life insurance license. Then I got my Series 7 stockbroker's license, my 6 and 63, and my securities licenses, and, you know, all these different real estate license and all these different credentials and became a financial planner and did pretty well at that. And then one day I was playing volleyball and somebody came up to me and said, hey, you know you work in finance, right? I go, yeah. And he said, I have an executive who won't change jobs because they're afraid of what's going to happen to their pension if they leave the current company. Do you know what happens? I said, yeah, it's simple. There's a 60 day window you can roll over your pension. It's actually a benefit. So a positive negative to a positive. And he said, would you call and tell that person out? I said, sure. So I called, explained how it works. Two weeks later we're playing volleyball again. He goes, thanks so much. That person took the job and I made like a $20,000 commission. I'm like, wow, where's my money? But it sparked the idea for the first company I ever created. I said, what if we could go to the recruiting industry and give them a value added benefit they could offer to executives changing jobs. Say, you know, Sarah, when I help you get this new job, you're not going to have to worry about your financial aspect. We're going to help you hook up with a financial expert in the city. You're going to to help you analyze and get all the answers you need so you're more able to focus at the new job. So I started a company called FAS Financial Analysis Service, which is now still in business, called Global Mobility Solutions 32 years later.

I'm glad you used Sarah as an example. She might probably need a new job pretty soon, so that's good. She's got a connection.

Thanks for putting that in the universe. I appreciate it.

Had to lighten it up a little bit here.

He's so fun. So good.

Yes. Okay, well, so this education thing you're doing, you're still listening to audiobooks, you're still doing that stuff today. What's some of the best ones you've been listening to or that you found valuable?

Well, gosh. One is Zen and the Art of Happiness, which is a short read, but it basically says whatever happens is the best thing that could possibly happen. And you think about that and you're like, huh? But it really is true because you can't change the past, you can't control the future. So you can just live in the present moment. So Zen and the Art of Happiness is always a good one. Who Moved My Cheese is another good book. Three Feet from Gold, you know that story? So this is a great quick story. So Three Feet from Gold, there was a wealthy gentleman from Illinois who came out west to make it rich in the gold mining industry. And he raised a bunch of money, started hitting a gold mine, bought this property and hit a really good vein. And he did so good that he went back To Illinois to raise more money, Came back, and the vein ran dry. And because he really didn't do his homework, he didn't really know geology that well. He gave up and said, well, the thing's dry. We're done. And a junkyard owner had known about the area and bought it from him for, like, $10. And soon this person started mining again, and he found that three feet from where the mine dried up was another vein which became one of the most producing gold mine veins in the history of the country. So that book called three feet from gold is you don't give up until you really, really, really, really try, because you could only be three feet from gold.

That's awesome.

So usually when we have conversations with our guests, I can see the, like, concerted efforts to, like, shift mindset, but there's something just innate about you. I mean, really, like, it's just sort of. It's just sort of built in you. And I'm sure it is a result of life experience, but also, there's just something that you can't help but see the good in everything. And that's so fascinating to me. Ben is quite the opposite.

True. I am just what you get.

Me too. But it's easier to, you know. And again, I have my moments. Of course. We all do. You know, I was a single parent for many years, too. I had just retired. So basically, let's fast forward a little bit, Right or backwards and forward real quick. So I've started this company to help coach people going through job change. As we observe this, you always. You're on the lookout, right? I call it thinking in dog years. Like, you analyze it up and down, backwards and forwards. And as you look at the issue, you say, what else can we do to help these people? Because when you relocate or change jobs, there's death, divorce, and relocation. And changing jobs are some of the most stressful times. What we notice is many of these people changing jobs were also relocating. So we said, why couldn't we help them sell their house? Why couldn't we help them find out about the new community and help them buy a house? Why can't we refer them to a mortgage company? Why can't we refer them to a moving company? So we created global mobility solutions, and we became like the moving guardian angels for people moving and help them through all aspects of the move from start to finish. And that company has continued to go on, and today is one of the top corporate relocation companies in the world.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, so where does family come in for you, at what point do you start? Do the kids come into the picture and what does that look like?

Yeah, so my kids started coming when I was about 30. So I have a son Max, who's 30 years old now. Man, does time fly. My daughter Abby is 28. My other daughter Sammy's 26 and a half. All three of them are married to wonderful, loving spouses. Like you said earlier, sir, I've got three grandchildren, a boy and two girls and another boy on the way. And so where family really came in is when back to gms. So during that time the Internet started and we started the 670th.com in the world and we created calculators to help again. If you think about how can you help others have an easier path. So when people were relocating, it was hard to figure out If I earned 50,000 in Phoenix and I'm moving to Chicago. How much does that mean in Chicago? So we created a tool called the salary calculator and we had all the most current up to date cost of living information. So I live in Phoenix, I make 50,000 a year, I'm moving to Chicago. Boop. And it tells you the salary you need in Chicago, adjusting for all the cost of living differences. And we started becoming really a popular website for tools. So we created mortgage calculators, rent versus buy calculators, school reports, and all these interactive tools and calculators. And we soon became one of the most popular websites on the Internet. And then in late 1999 we had an opportunity for an exit strategy. So we're either going to go public through Goldman Sachs and at the last meeting with the bankers, they looked at me and said, you know, we love your company. There's only one problem, you're profitable. I left that meeting and said, that guy's an effing idiot. And I called a friend of mine who had just raised a bunch of money for Home Store and we sold our company for an all cash transaction in November of 99 to homestore.com and we were one of the building blocks on a company that's now called realtor.com and so I retired and I was 39 at the time and I had just got a divorce and my kids were pre k first and like second. I was like, what should my job be now? So I became a volunteer dad, dude. And I basically just went to school four days a week and volunteered in the classroom. And since I wasn't that smart, they would give me the slower learners in the hallway and go over math equations. One plus two equals five.

Don't hurt Sarah's brain.

Stop that.

Okay, you lost me.

But that was so wonderful because I love that whole environment. As we talk a little bit later, it rolls into what we're doing today to help educators. But so back then I volunteered in elementary school. My kids got older and they said, dad, if you come to junior high, we're going to kill you. It's not cool. So I didn't know what to do. So I went and met with the principal at Stapley Junior High in Mesa. I said, what's your biggest problem on campus? He goes, lunchtime. I go, that was quick. He goes, yeah, it's a mess. They eat in like three seconds. Then they get in these clicks and all these groups and it's a mess. During lunch, the most fights, the most problems, right? So we created the Stapley Survivor, which in fact, 17 years later now is still going on in Mesa. And the Stapley Survivor. What happened is the kids would pick teams and homerooms and the teams would represent that homeroom. And during lunch we'd have these competitions like relay races. We even had the district nurse how to approve a gross food eating contest. We had a puke bucket and everything. And if your team got disqualified, you were out for that, that round. And at the end, the winning team got Xboxes. We threw T shirts into the crowd, like, who wants a T shirt? And my kids then were okay with me being on campus because you're launching.

T shirts into the crowd. That's great.

We had the Phoenix cheerleaders come out one time. A friend of mine worked there. We had DJs and it was just a way to give back to the school. And my kids let me be there that way. And then when they went to Mountain View, my volunteering at schools was over and I got back into the, into the business sort of mode.

That's quite, quite a journey. Lots of success. So that's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Who in the heck helped you during this time frame? Like you just went through a whole lifespan almost. And you say we a lot, but who's we?

Well, it's always a we, right? It's. It's. So one of my nicknames is Group Hug Ganley. Because what I really like to do is gather people together and brainstorm and think through ideas and then take that and put action to it. So like all of us, you know, we know people in our lives that you can sit down with and have great conversations with and learn from, you know, always again with the Spirit of, you know, I didn't encourage everybody. Always just thirst to learn. Right. And keep evolving and growing and learning. And that just helps you expand and expand and expand. So there were lots of people, Ben, along the way that came into my life, like probably three people that I've been in business with, with global mobility for over 30 years. My three business partners there, mentors along the way, who some are passed on, some are still alive, but also just the energy of a team, you know, and the energy of that, the strength of thinking things through together.

Interesting.

Okay.

All right, so let's go to the day. Let's talk about what you have going on now because it's a little different, right?

Yeah. So after the kids kicked me out of high school, I couldn't go. I got into the medical profession and we had a company. One of my friends was going to dialysis treatment and he could never get a ride there or back on time. And it was terrible. And I looked and said, I wonder why that happens. And I noticed that they treated the drivers like crap. So we started a company to be driver centric called Dependable Medical Transport. So we did wheelchair stretcher transport and we got contracts with all the access plans. So we would transport the elderly and the people that need help, the vulnerable populations, back into discharge from the hospital to a skilled nursing facility, dialysis appointments, doctor's appointments, things like that. And as I witnessed that industry and how if you treat your team well, they excel at treating others well. So I've always sort of been obsessed with service, but not only for the customer, but for the employee. And if you just spoil both sides of the equation, then business and life become easier that way. And then we noticed that a lot of the elderly people became lonely and isolated and stuck at home and they got comorbidities. So then we created another company called Van Gogh Activities, the Art of Active Living. And what we did is we encouraged seniors to get emotionally, physically and mentally out and active. We pick them up in groups, we take them to like brain saver classes that Barrows helped us create. We take them to senior yoga classes. And over a six year period, the people that participated in that program, the health plans, actually reduced their cost of care by between 4 and 7% because they were happier, healthier and more social. And so those companies evolved. And then Hospice of the Valley approached me and said, hey, we have 300 nurses in the field every day and we never really know where they are or where they should go next. And we're wasting all this money on Gas and driving from Chandler to Glendale and back over to Gilbert. And so we created a cloud based app called Inavisit that works as an app on their phone and it basically tracks them during the day. And when they get, we geofence the patient's house. So when they show up it says ding, ding, they're here. They have the treatment plan while they're there. Then when they leave, the computer analyzes it and says, where should I go next to save mileage, have the quickest response time. And that helped them reduce their cost of fuel, helped them their response time to appointments. And they still use that today at Hospice of the Valley. And then about six and a half years ago, I was approached by this brilliant young lady named Dallas Sloan, who was a hairstylist from Canada. And she says, hey, I'd like to borrow some money to open a hair salon. And I said, she said, would you loan me the money to do it? I said no, but I would love if we could collaborate and think about opening the first ever multimodality type of practice in Gilbert. And that's where we opened Kohler Beauty Lounge and Med Spa. In fact, this month in May will be our six year anniversary. We also are doubling our footprint at the current location. And on March 17th, love you both. To come is going to be our grand opening of Kohler 2.0 and our six year anniversary celebration combined.

2.0. I like that.

I love this. And I will say that I love Dallas. She's just a force to be reckoned with and an amazing leader in our community. Tell us, what is a beauty lounge in medspa? What is that?

So if you visualize, we do everything, men and women's hair, from haircuts to basic cuts, to any type of color to vivid colors to basic color. So anything hair.

So we could cover the gray.

I was wondering if they could wash yours. I was wondering about that.

Sarah has very nice hair.

She does.

And your gray is nice too. It's fashionable.

Thanks.

Looks good. If the viewers could see them, they would know what I meant.

Starstruck.

Starstruck. So hair, everything hair. We also have a new device called the ted, which stands for Trans Epidural Delivery. It's the first and only FDA approved pain free needle free hair growth device. So we can help people with scalp issues, hair follicle issues, alopecia, balding spots, things like that. So we do everything hair. Then we've got four or five medical grade estheticians. So we do everything from basic facials to advanced facials. To we use a lot of technical. Because I love technology. A lot of technology. We have a 4D face scanner. So when we start a patient, we give them a 4D face scan that shows your skin all the way back to the bone. The elasticity levels, the pore sizes, the hydration rating, the age rating. And then based on that, instead of just saying, here's the facial you need, we can visually see and scientifically understand. And then we can give them the best facial possible. It also has a QR code. A lot of people will take that info and share it with their dermatologist as well. So we do everything skin. We have five nurses that are injectors. So we do botox fillers, threading, microneedling, radio frequency microneedling. We just opened a full laser department. Our laser technician, Linda Lee, has been for 26 years now one of the first and top laser techs in the. In the state. So we can do everything skin except surgery.

I feel like you need to do the laser quotes every time you say that.

They'll just laser. Yes, laser. Yeah, they're really good. And then we also do a lot of IV nutrient therapy, so vitamin shots, vitamin pushes, IV nutrient therapy and those sorts of things. So that's what we eat, breathe and sleep is hair. Everything skin. But surgery and vitamin therapy.

That's awesome. And you got 2.0 coming around the corner. So that's the future there.

That is really cool.

Yeah, we feel very blessed. Gilbert is in the East Valley, has been like such a blessing to us. And I remember when we built, there was nothing but dirt next to us. Where the Epic center is now.

Yeah, I mean, really now that is the place to be. Perfect spot. It's very exciting.

Fascinating story. From the streets to 2.0.

Well, the other really exciting thing is what's happening with the town of Gilbert and with the school. The Gilbert school district. I don't know how much time we have left, but might want to just share that as sort of the final chapter. So it's interesting when I first started my career, because I love to read another book was a book about people that live to be 100 years old. And they said, if you could live your life again, what would you do different? One of the most often cited answers. What I wish I would have risked more. Wish I would have taken a chance. Number two, I wish I would have reflected more what a great time I had during this interview. You know, smell the roses, put your feet up on the desk. Right. The most often cited answer. The most often Cited was, I wish I could have done more things that live on when I'm done. And from that time, 30 some odd years ago, I said, anything I'm involved with, I want it to be something that would do more things that would live on when we're done. Right. So having children's example of that, companies that serve other people, things that change things for the better, things that change the future. I remember in the Internet, people used to say, the inner what? What are you? Inner stupid. I'm like, no, the Internet, it's going to be a big thing. But said he'd look at you because you can hear the music. But they couldn't hear the music yet. So you just have to be bold enough to go for what you believe in, right?

Yeah. So how's the school district involved in that?

So about a year and a month or so ago, I approached J.W. rayhans Financial, and I had a new idea for an employee benefit. I said, you know what I'd love to do is for you to be able to show gratitude to your employees, to let them know how much you care about them. And we give them a discount for coming into Kohlaire. And jw, being a financial expert, he's like, I'll go one better. I'm going to put a little bit of money every month in their bucket, and then they can come in with the credit. So that started happening and it worked out wonderfully well. Then a few months later, I got a call from the town of Gilbert, and they said, patrick Benger would like to meet with you. I'm like, great. We're have lunch together. And I Google, I'm like, who's this guy? I'm like, oh, he's the town manager. I was like, okay. So we meet. He says, I heard what you're doing with jw. You know, you've got a lot of experience with human resource and wellness. Would you look at what we're doing for our employees? Because we'd like to make it the best we can be as a town. And he said, really pay attention to the first responder part. And I gotta tell you, Ben and Sarah, when I started doing that, I honestly started crying because I never realized if you become a first responder, you raise your hand and you say, I'm probably gonna die 10 to 15 years sooner than a normal person. I'm gonna have six times more cancer, three times more cardiovascular events, and I'm gonna have PTSD like crazy. The average first responder in their career probably sees three to 400, like scraping the person off the road or somebody shot in the face or whatever happens out there. A lot of ptsd. So that really motivated me to want to help. So I formed an entity called the Positive Impact Alliance Group. Hugging again. And we had U of A asu, some local doctors, psychologists and therapists. And we got together as a think tank and thought about what we can do to specifically help our first responders and our heroes and our public servants. And we came up with a concept called the Recharge Room. And so we presented that to the city. They liked it a lot. Over the last year now, we've been working through all the logistics and details and we're ready to launch the program in July. Then about six months ago, I spoke to Sarah actually and explained what we were doing. She said, geez, you probably want to go talk to schools too. Maybe you could help the schools out right now. Because when I started looking at schools, I realized we're looking for teachers overseas. Teachers are quitting in the first year of their contract instead of the three to five year hump. It's brutal out there right now in the education world. And that's the future, you know, as we all know, if we can educate our kids, that's the future of our world. Right. So Shane McCord and I communicated. Shane asked me to go meet with him and his inner cabinet. I sat down and said, okay, what's up with you? And they said, well, we have 4,000 employees and we have a health and wellness benefit and we offer them a free gym or yoga membership. And if they do it consistently, we give them a $250 discount off their premium because the school is self insured through the school trust. I said, that sounds great. They go, yeah, but after three years we only have 300 to 350 people doing it. Why? So we left and thought about that and we came up with the answer. If you're a teacher, the kids are all over you, the parents are all over you, the principals are on you, the administration needs things done, the politicians don't pay us enough. So I'm shopping with my own money for school supplies. I'm grading papers on Saturday, I'm prepping for lessons on Sunday, I'm doing homework assignments on Sunday night. When I'm done working, I just want to go home to the couch and to my family. So they don't have time. So we went back and said, they don't have time. And they're like, you know, you're right. And we said, we're going to give our educators the gift of time. And so what happens is every school, every teacher has a schedule all day. And in every teacher's schedule, they have what's called a prep time each day. So what we're going to do is we're doing a mobile deployment of a nurse to the campus. We're going to set up the recharge room for educators. And in this recharge room, the teacher during their prep time, because it's right there for them. They'll come in and we're going to give them a vitamin shot, a hand, neck and arm massage, and then they're going to sit down with a pair of headphones on that do positive affirmations and vagus nerve stimulation and red light therapy, which are all designed to reduce anxiety, inflammation, improve skin health, brain health, and really give them some powerful on the site tools to help them deal with all the stress that's going on right now. And we just kicked off to Gilbert elementary last week and then Mesquite Junior High. Those are the two pilot sites that we're doing before the summer break. And if all goes well, then we'll go system wide with it after that. So it's so rewarding. You know, we were talking to the group at Gilbert elementary and just to see the look in their eyes, wow, they care. And we just want to show we love them, we care about them, and they're really critically important to us. And so I've always believed long ago there's a statement that says there's three kinds of people in the world. There's people that make it happen, there's people that watch it happen, and there's people wondering what the heck happened. So I would just encourage everybody. What I've tried to do and I know everybody can do is make it happen. Whether it's a phone call today, whether it's a new idea today, it's anything that you can do just to make it happen. And remember that adversity always turns into victory. When one door shuts, usually two better ones open up. Right. So no matter what happens, just like Zen of the Art of Happiness says, whatever happens is the best thing that can possibly happen.

Love it. Well, I appreciate you sharing that. I'm glad that you were able to share the story of all the things you're able to do for responders and teachers because those are near and dear to our hearts. For sure. Great journeys.

Yeah. And I appreciate that you really listen to the community. You and Dallas both invest in the community you're present and you continue to lead. And I just, I admire the effort that you put into making those connections.

Thanks. It's my pleasure. And it's really rewarding. And we're lucky. I mean, in Gilbert, we really have some amazing leaders and people that are involved, other business owners, as I've been blessed enough to get to know the town of Gilbert leadership and the school district leadership and just the fellow business people through the chamber of commerce. It's amazing. And there's just the power of togetherness is just so synergistic and so, so amazing. So it's. I feel blessed we're in Gilbert, indeed.

All right, well, thank you for being here.

You're welcome.

This is a great episode and I know you like this episode, too, as you're listening to this. If you want more of these, be sure to subscribe to our tribe so you can get these coming to you as soon as we launch them, which hopefully there's more to come. Thanks for being here. Guiding growth conversations with community leaders.

Ben, let me ask you a question.

How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast?

This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us. So I think there's many opportunities at hand. Whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us, let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it. We'd love to hear from you. Reach out, let us know and we'll see if we can make that connection.