In this solo episode of the Yes! And podcast, the host introduces Rack Friday, a grassroots movement that replaces the consumer‑driven chaos of Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) with a day dedicated to random acts of kindness. He explains the inclusive, non‑political, non‑religious nature of the initiative and outlines how it has grown from a family idea to a global effort involving schools, clubs, churches, and the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. The host provides a menu of low‑cost kindness ideas—from Post‑it notes and baked goods to paying for a coffee or leaving dollar bills in a store. He shares a personal story about his late mother, June “Juju” Thomas, whose life was transformed by the spirit of Rack Friday, illustrating the reciprocal blessings of giving. The episode includes a strong call to action: participants should perform and share their acts using the hashtag #RackFriday17, aiming for 2,017 acts worldwide. The host also plugs an upcoming “Get Unstuck in 10 Days” program starting December 1 and teases a future interview with Drew Thompson. The overall message is an enthusiastic invitation to shift the cultural narrative of the post‑Thanksgiving day toward kindness and community.
Chapters
Think of your fellow man, lend him a helping hand, put a little love in your heart. You'll see it's very late, so please don't hesitate.
And hello everyone, welcome to episode 90 of the weekly Yes! And podcast, the big 9-0.
Wow.
And I can't think of a A better topic to talk about on episode 90. Wow, 10 episodes away from 100. That's fun. That's kind of cool to think about. But episode 90, this episode is really— it's just a solo cast. It's just me talking about Rack Friday 2017. And I want to talk about Rack Friday because it is coming up Friday, November 24th. This podcast is coming out hopefully a good week Before Rack Friday and just want to build up as much momentum as possible to get you involved, to inspire you to get others involved, be it people that you work with, people in your family, your friends, maybe a church that you go to, a community group, a sports team that you or your child is associated with. And share this in a way that— and well, actually what I love about Rack Friday is that there's no strings attached to what it is and what we're all about. There's no religious affiliation, although there are churches that rally around it. There's no political affiliation. You can be a Trump supporter, a Hillary supporter, a Bernie supporter. You can be everyone in between and still be all about Rack Friday. Rack Friday doesn't care about your race, about your beliefs, about your creed, about your politics, about what sports team you cheer for. Go Sparty! But Rack Friday is for anybody. Who wants to help be a part of a movement. And that's what I'm excited about. This is a movement. The question is, how long is this movement going to take to really hit its tipping point? So is it this year? I don't know, but it will hit its tipping point at some point down the road. People will look back on the Friday after Thanksgiving and it will no longer be known as Black Friday. It will be known as Rack Friday, and people will only know it as Rack Friday, and there'll be old people like me, and they'll go, I remember the time when the day after Thanksgiving was known as Black Friday. That's my old man. It's pretty good, right? Black Friday, and people go, why?
Wow.
Grandpa, Grandpa, why was it known as Black Friday?
Well, you see, all of the stores, they would start Having crazy sales that crept into Thanksgiving, where you would go to the mall and it would be crazy and people would kill each other over a Cabbage Patch doll.
Yeah, that's what they used to do. And so yes, we all know the craziness of Black Friday.
I get it.
There's great deals and you want to save a buck, but it infringes on Thanksgiving, a day that is Has nothing to do with commercialism outside of buying a turkey, and it has everything to do with family and gratitude. And then the very next day, you have a day that is all about consumption and commercialism.
I am—
and I am not anti, uh, commercialism from the standpoint of buying gifts, but when that becomes sort of the kickstart for the holidays leading up to Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever tradition you celebrate, then it becomes like, wow, we really kick off the holiday season with it being all about stuff. And so 4 years ago, myself and some friends and some family got inspired to start this idea called Rack Friday. So instead of going out and getting into fights in shopping malls and leaving Thanksgiving dinner early to go buy that sweet deal at Walmart, it was all about spending the day doing as many random acts of kindness as possible, thus transforming Black Friday into Rack Friday. And this is really a grassroots movement that has started with my family and friends. And we've gotten a little bit more steam every year. We've gotten help from awesome people at the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation in Denver. Schools like the Principia School and Powers Catholic High School and the Lynx School have gotten involved. Clubs like Massive Soccer that I'm involved with here in Florida and the Bigger Pitch Foundation. And then groups and teams that I've never even heard of, but people have jumped on board. Our church this year has jumped on board, and we're giving members in our church money to go out and do random acts of kindness. Not in the spirit of proselytizing, but in the spirit of being loving to your neighbor in whatever way that shows up as a random act of kindness. And so this is the start of a movement. This is what the start of a movement looks like. And for those of you who are new and you're just hearing about #RockFriday for the first time, our goal is on that day, Friday, November 24th, Collectively, globally, for there to be 2017 random acts of kindness committed. And then here's the important part: and shared, and shared using the hashtag #RackFriday17. Because if it's not shared, we can't collect it, we can't tally it, and we can't let everyone know that it was done so that we can show the world, how many of us are out there that are dedicated and committed to kindness and that, you know, the ripple effect of this and the movement of this. And so that's what #RackFriday is all about. And that can be you out there committing one random act of kindness, that's fine. You could commit 100 random acts of kindness, that's pretty awesome. And you're gonna inspire others to do the same. So again, you can do it individually, you can do it as a group. You can do it as a family, however you want to do it. And it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. You could make— take Post-it notes and write encouraging things and leave them on windshields. Take Post-it— what are they called? Like index cards and write inspiring quotes and things like that and leave them on neighbors' doors or slide them in lockers or Leave them in random places. Bake something and leave it at your neighbor's door. Get rid of some old clothes that you no longer need and donate to a homeless shelter. Bake cookies for someone. There's so much stuff you can do that costs little to no money, and it's still a random act of kindness, and it's you being intentional about blessing someone else. And then obviously, if you start to spend a little bit of money, it's buying coffee for someone, maybe a Salvation Army bell ringer.
It is.
Going through a drive-through window and buying the order behind you. It is going into the dollar store and taping dollar bills all through the store for people to find and use in the dollar store. It's going into police departments, fire departments, and bringing treats. And it's just getting out there. It's holding doors. It's giving people your parking spots. It is leaving popcorn bags taped on Redbox machines. It is Anything that you want it to be with the spirit of random acts of kindness. That's what Rack Friday is all about. And this Rack Friday 17 is a very special one to me, my brothers and sisters, my family, because many of you know that my mother, June Thomas, Juju, passed away at the end of the summer very suddenly. And we had— our last random acts of kindness we got to do was Rack the 4th, which my sister came up with. And we've done that on the 4th of July the last 2 years. And so we were already gearing up for Rack Friday 17, but my mom passed away. And she loved Rack Friday. And we're going back probably 2 or 3 years ago when she was having a difficult time not having family members around her during the holidays. Excuse me. And she was in a funk, a little bit of depression, and she was just struggling. The holidays were making it really rough on her. And then we started doing this whole Rack Friday thing, and she would wake up in the morning excited about who she was gonna go and bless that day through a random act of kindness. So even though Rack Friday is all about that one day, she took the spirit and she was trying to do one or two every day for the entire holiday season. And she, she told me and she told everyone how it completely transformed the holidays for her, transformed her life from waking up and thinking about What she didn't have to thinking about how she could bless someone else and how powerful that was for her. And all of us have experienced that when you take the time to just set your intention on helping others, blessing others, being kind to others, how not only are you having an impact on them, you are completely shifting and transforming Your own spirit, your own thoughts. And it has, it has a double compound effect because you're blessing the person that you do the act for, and you are being blessed yourself. And then people around who witness it are being blessed, and they might be inspired to do it, or they're going to tell someone, you can't believe what I saw today, which is going to bless someone else. And it just goes on and on and on and on. Which brings me back to, this is the start of a movement. I've joked in the different videos that I've done that Ellen DeGeneres needs to get behind Rack Friday and Oprah needs to get behind Rack Friday because this is something that just is simple, no strings attached. It is humanity at its simplest and best, and it has a totally transformative, transformative effect. On others. And what better thing could we be doing and celebrating, especially the day after Thanksgiving, and as we roll into the meat of the holiday season, where we just get ourselves set and reminded of what the holiday season stands for? So Rack Friday 17, #RackFriday17. Please use that hashtag when you do something and you post it. But please, please, please, please share this podcast. With as many people as you can so that we can get the movement growing and others know about it. And you plan something yourself. You can keep it simple. Plan something yourself and you will feel the impact as well. So Rack Friday 17, there you have it. Get out there. #RackOn, #RackFriday17. And it's such a blast. It is such, such a blast. And I'm so excited for it. And then shameless plug, one more thing. The next Get Unstuck in 10 Days starts on December 1st. You can go to my website, liveyesand.com, click on events to be a part of that. So that's a lot of fun. So you can, you can rack on and bless someone on Rack Friday and then get unstuck starting December 1st. What a great combination that would be. All right, everybody, much love to you all. Get out there, Rack Friday. Let's change Black Friday into Rack Friday, and let's have a whole lot of fun doing it. There you have it. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Awesome interview coming up next week with Drew Thompson from Rocksteady here in Jupiter, Florida. And have a wonderful, wonderful yes and day. Love you, Juju.
Will be a better place for you and me. You just wait and see. Hey!
