Episode 114: The Power of One!

Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 114 of the weekly Yes! And podcast in conjunction and partnership with Inspired to Give, inspiredtogive.org. Great to have you guys here for episode 114. I'm Travis Thomas, the creator of The Weekly Yap and contributor for Inspired to Give, doing this dual podcast here today. Episode 114 is It Only Takes One. And so we'll get more into that here in a second. Just a little bit of a catch-up, not a promotional— don't, don't mistake what I'm doing now as far as commercials and unplugging ads. I don't have those. This is just me playing catch-up because if you look in, uh, you know, the podcasts or iTunes, wherever you access the Weekly Yap, you will see that episode 113 was November 18th. And here we are January 22nd and you're getting episode 114. So it has been a little while to say the least since the last episode of I'm ashamed to say it, the weekly Yes And podcast. So it hasn't been weekly. It's probably been struggling to be monthly at this point, but I do have some interviews lined up. We are getting back on track. So let's just pause and embrace the moment that you are enjoying episode 114. Let's not worry about the last episode or when the next episode will be. Let's just be in episode 114. A lot has happened. In between episode 113 and 114. For starters, we celebrated Holiday Hope for the Homeless for the 2nd year in a row, working with the Lord's Place in West Palm Beach. We organized, uh, this fundraiser event, whatever you want to call it. This is our 2nd year, and we call it Holiday Hope for the Homeless because our goal is to raise money and donations in order to create holiday gift bags. presents, if you will, to be given to as many of the chronically homeless in West Palm Beach as possible. Now, what we know statistically is that at any one time, there are about 1,500 chronically homeless people on the streets of West Palm Beach. Last year, we were able to put together 60— 6-0— bags together that were then distributed basically using the foot patrol. The foot The foot workers, the amazing group of people for the Lord's Place, they go out on the streets, they distribute those bags. It was very humbling, to say the least, that when we dropped off 60 bags and they told us that there's probably over 1,000 chronically homeless on the streets. But you do what you can do. So our goal this year was 100 bags, right? Can we go from 60 to 100? Because again, we're relying on the donations of friends and family and all of you. Uh, via physical donations or financial donations via GoFundMe. We had another GoFundMe page. Well, I'm excited to say, even over a month later, that it was a huge success. I'm so grateful, so appreciative, especially with our partners at the Bigger Pitch Foundation, Jupiter Hot Yoga, Tropical Smoothie of Stuart and Port St. Lucie, and Rock Steady Juice Joint. With those 4 partners and donation boxes in all those stores, as well as the kindness of all of you who contributed and strangers, we raised over $4,000 in donations, as well as a bunch of other physical donations. Enough that we were able to create 119 holiday bags that were given to the homeless. So how awesome is that, right? From 60 To $119,000. We almost doubled it. We had some extra donations. We didn't have enough to go into bags per se, but we had extra gift cards that were given to a charity in Jupiter. We used every penny. It was all given away. Huge success. And so thank you. And if you didn't contribute and you hear about this, well, hey, let me know. Reach out, make a contact. And wherever you are, how about if you do Holiday Hope for the Homeless in your area? Next year, and we partner up, and you do it on your end. We'll do it in our town. If anyone is listening to this, they want to do holiday hope for the homeless in their community. Let's be in touch, and let's start to make this movement spread. So we're pumped. Our goal is I'm gonna put it out there. Our goal is 200 bags next year. I know we can get there, and wherever you are, we could use your help in holiday home. Holiday Hope for the homeless in your community as well. Boom, there you have it. Thank you to everyone who, uh, who contributed and was just a part of it. We have a big packaging party, an assembly party. We had it at our house this year and it was really cool. 2 kind of cool moments that stand out from this year is, A, it was awesome to, to have the staging party at our house, to have everyone just kind of come in and contribute what they could. Uh, the huge donations from people, uh, the financial ones, but also the ones where people went into the stores and, uh, just dropped off supplies— toothbrushes, blankets, gift cards, toothpaste, uh, feminine products, right? All these practical things combined with, you know, blankets and pillows, all these things were, were contributed, were just amazing. The thing that stood out for me Was my wife and I, it was the day of the assembly party, we went to Walmart, we were getting the stuff that we felt we needed to complete the bags. And, uh, so imagine us, we're in Walmart, we're in a self-checkout. So a self-checkout, and so we're checking out, just imagine like the little travel-size toothbrushes or toothpaste or deodorant, all these different— imagine a shopping cart filled to the brim With all of these items, so hundreds of items, and we've got to boop individual scan, boop individual scan, boop. So anytime someone would come behind our cart, I would go, "Hey, you guys might want to go elsewhere. This is going to take us a while," and they would smile, and they would go to the next register. Well, we were kind of towards the end, but you know, it's still a tedious process. And this woman, she probably in her fifties, and she comes behind us. And she's not even looking and she's starting to put stuff on the belt before I can tell her, hey. And so she looks up, I'm like, I'm sorry, you might want to go to a different register. And she said, listen, it's okay. She said, I can just stand here and appreciate sort of the peace and stillness of not having to do anything right now. I was like, oh, amen. And so, and of course she's looking at our cart She says, "What are you guys doing?" And so my wife and I told us, told her, "You know, we're this project for the homeless," and da da da da. And she started crying, and she goes, "Can I give you guys a hug?" And she gives my wife a big hug, and she gives me a big hug, and she goes on to tell us that you know she's she's a widow. She's an empty nest house. She goes, "I have this big house on the river. My kids are out of the house. I'm a grandparent now. I'm in this house by myself." All I'm gonna do is go back home to my empty house, and what you guys are doing is amazing. How can I help next year? And so, and she gave, she probably gave my wife 3 hugs. And so it was super, super cool. Those are the moments where you just kind of see this ripple effect of when any of us just kind of do one simple thing, the ripple effect it can have when others see it. And it's not about Oh, look at, look at how good we are, or we're gonna make other people do good things. But by the simple fact of doing that act, it inspires others to live with more good, with more inspiration and purpose, which really gets us into what episode 114 is all about today. It only takes one. And I think that is that example from the Holiday Hope for the Homeless. Really encapsulates this idea that it only takes one. And I know if you're like me, you're watching the news and you're watching the government shut down and you're watching race issues and sex issues and politics and you're— and you've got your own family stuff that's happening. God knows I do. And you look at all this stuff and you get frustrated, you get angry, you get depressed, you get sad, you get cynical. And no matter what your personality type is, that's going to trigger something that's probably not healthy. So what do you do, right? What do you do when what's going on seems insurmountable? And what is going on, your contribution doesn't look like or feel like it would be enough. And the reality is, it only takes one. Last week, Gillette unveiled a 60-second commercial You've either seen it or you've heard about it. They've changed their slogan from the best a man can get. I grew up with that tagline. Most of us have. The best a man can get. Yeah, that's good right there, huh? Yeah. They changed it from the best a man can get to the best a man can be. And they started their own little organization for people to kind of check that out as well. The best a man can be. And the commercial is about changing, or shall I say transforming, holding manhood to a higher standard. Encouraging men, encouraging, emphasis on courage, encouraging men to have the courage to stand up when they see bullying taking place, to stand up when they see sexual harassment taking place. To change our concept of manhood, not to, you know, any longer just accept boys will be boys, right? Locker room behavior. And to promote and encourage this idea of moral courage, what it takes to stand up, to go against the grain, to go against the crowd. Because we know that one of the hardest things, if not the hardest thing, that any of us ever have to do in our lives is speak up against the crowd. That's really, really difficult, especially when you're like me. I'm non-confrontational. But you'll remember my story from a few months ago of how I was sitting in Starbucks when the men sitting around me started just saying ignorant stuff about sexual harassment, and I had to speak up and say no. That's not true. What you're saying is not true. And then they immediately kind of like, oh, backtracked and recoiled, and we ended up having somewhat of a nice conversation. But, and it was just kind of one of those conversations where the guys sitting around me, one guy says something and it was easy for the other guys to go, yeah, right, and I suppose this, and I bet if we did that. And it was just this group think environment. And it's so easy to get sucked into. I get sucked into it. We get sucked into it where the group is all behaving one way, so we allow ourselves to behave that way. The whole group is talking a certain way, so we allow ourselves to talk a certain way. You know, I was just working with a group of high school kids. I was doing a leadership session. I said, I guarantee right now all of you can think to your peer group. There is one kid in your peer group That everyone makes fun of. And everyone just kind of thinks, oh yeah, I mean, that's just so-and-so. We make fun of them. And you have probably just gotten sucked into going, yeah, you know, that's just so-and-so. And that's just groupthink, right? Because none of us on the surface would go, yeah. None of us would say, yeah, it's okay to make fun of someone. It's okay to be disrespectful. It's okay to bully. None of us. But groupthink, and it happens in corporate culture, right? Boy, does it happen in corporate culture, and it happens in politics. Boy, does it happen in politics, and it happens in sports locker rooms, and it happens in boardrooms, and it happens in our homes. It happens everywhere. And if we don't have the courage every once in a while to stand up and say, "No, that's not okay." No, that's not. how I think. That's not how I feel. That does not represent me. And it only takes one. I showed him this video about groupthink and where they have set up these, these scenarios across the world. They've done it in New York City. They've done it in London where they'll put a person, an actor, in a public situation and they'll dress them up somewhat homeless looking. And they'll kind of writhe around in pain as people literally just walk by, look down, look the other way, and walk by. And it takes this one guy 20 minutes before someone stops to see if they're okay. And then they take the same actor and they put him in a business suit, and it took 6 seconds for someone to stop and check on them. The same person in different clothes. Why? Because that person in the suit was a part of the larger group. It was okay. It's not okay for that person to not be okay, but it's okay for the person that doesn't look like me, dress like me, talk like me. If they're in pain, that's not okay. And you watch this and it's cringeworthy, and you're like, I would never do something like that. And if you are listening to this and you are the person that would I would never do something like that. God bless you. I want to hear from you because you are amazing. And I'm not being facetious because the reality is all of us every day, we fall into groupthink and we say to ourselves, we come up with a reason to justify why I am not helping, why I can't help. It's because I don't have time. I'm on my way to work. I'm going to be late. That's dangerous for me. What if they have mental issues? All these things, many of them can be valid. They can all be valid, but we come up with reasons and excuses. But what the video also shows is once one person steps up or steps in and helps, immediately a bunch of other people jump in to help as well, because it only takes one. And so our greatest fear often is, if I speak up, everyone is going to turn against me and no one is going to help me. And the reality is, most of the people— if you're in a situation that doesn't feel right, odds are a lot of other people also feel that something's not right also. And all it takes is one person to step up And do something about it, and other people come and have your back. It doesn't mean they're going to, and that's what real courage is. Courage is doing the thing when we're afraid, but we know that we can't not do it. That's courage. But the reality is, it only takes one person to stand, stand up and change a culture. It only takes one person to stand up and change it. Change a narrative, to change how a story goes because they had the courage to speak up and to stand up. I showed the kids a video today. Actually, it was just a picture. It was a picture of a bowl of peaches, and one of the peaches is really, really rotten. It's got fuzz all over it. And you can see that the peach right next to it now has It's— it was a healthy peach, and now half of it is molding as well. And the reality is, you take a moldy peach and put it in a bowl of healthy peaches, it will start to infest the entire bowl of healthy peaches. And that's what happens when we leave things unchecked, when we leave situations, people, behavior, beliefs, cultures, when we leave them unchecked, and we just think, ah, it's just one person, it can't affect us. Ah, it's just this, it won't, it won't spread. It does spread. We have to have the courage to step up, to speak up, to do something about it. And it only takes one. So the Weekly Yes And Podcast, episode 114, Inspired to Give. It only takes one. What Are you being called forth to speak up, to stand up on? It doesn't have to be a huge issue. It could be something in your own backyard. It could be in your own family. It could be a behavior that a sibling, a child, a parent is exhibiting, or a friend. It could be at work. It could be with your peers. It could be on your sports team. Do you have the courage to speak up? It only takes one. So there you have it. Thanks so much for listening, guys. If you like this, if you want to share it, share freely. I will never turn down you sharing the weekly— I almost said the weekly lap— the weekly yap. You can find me at liveyesand.com. I'm on social media @liveyesand, although I've taken an Instagram sabbatical, or a fast if you will, for January. I am not on Instagram, although I do post a video every morning on my story. And I post it on IGTV, Instagram TV. So follow me @LiveYesAnd, and you can watch my— I call it the Yes Daily, Your Excellent Self Daily, where I wax poetic for about 3 or 4 minutes on an idea that is inspiring me to live your excellent self. So check that out on Instagram. And a couple of things that I'm excited about. I'm excited about Inspired to Give being a partner with the Weekly Yes and Podcast. Make sure you check out inspiredtogive.org. I'm excited that I just signed up for Brian Johnson's Optimizer coaching program. It's a 10-month coaching program, and I'm excited to get out of my comfort zone and continue to learn and be a better coach, a better performance coach, and a better person. I am excited That starting tomorrow night, I will be teaching a college course at Lynn University as part of the Watson Institute at Lynn University, an amazing institute, Watson, where they recruit international socially conscious entrepreneurs. So I will be teaching one of their courses for the rest of the semester, which means I'm a college professor now. Can you believe that? Yes. Hard to believe, but I am the preceptor for that class. I'm pumped. So Watson kids, students— I didn't mean to say kids disrespectfully. Kids in an endearing way, because I'm 45. I don't feel like a kid anymore. Well, I feel like a kid, might not look like one. And I also want to say I'm excited about Bikram yoga that I've been doing for the last 2 weeks. It's kicking my butt. I'm sweating out the toxins and literally stretching outside my comfort zone. Literally. Isn't that right, Trinity, my daughter? Literally. So there you have it, everybody. Episode 114, It Only Takes One. If you're gonna start a Holiday Hope for the Homeless in your area, please be in touch. There you have it, guys. Have an awesome, awesome Yes and Day. Love you, Juju. Love you, Dad.