An Army of Normal Folks - Brian Schwartz: I Want to Mow Your Lawn (Pt 1)

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

After losing his job, Brian felt called to contribute to society in some way while looking for a new gig. He found mowing his own lawn to be therapeutic, so he figured why not offer to do it for folks in need. His accidental nonprofit I Want To Mow Your Lawn has grown into its own army of 1,404 normal folks who’ve mowed the lawns of over 2,000 people!Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There was this perfect stranger, this woman in New York named Sloan, who sent a snail mail letter in the mail that said, I saw the story about you. And again, this was a person that I was not ever, we didn't help her with lawns, but I guess it was a time when she needed to hear or see something. I didn't know what she was going through. I didn't know this person. She wrote me a letter saying, Dear Brian, I saw a story about you mowing lawns. It gave me some hope and inspiration.

And then she went on to say, I once saw on a t-shirt, be the reason someone believes in the goodness of people. And she left it off with, you are that reason, sir. And that, it made me cry. And it was something that I needed to hear in that moment. It made me feel valued, like I was doing something meaningful. And I wanted to scale up that feeling,

realizing I'm onto something just bigger than myself now. or something just bigger than myself now. Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I'm an entrepreneur. And I've been a football coach in inner city Memphis.

And that last part, somehow it led to an Oscar for the film about our team. That movie is called Undefeated. Guys, I believe our country's problems are never gonna be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits using big words that nobody ever uses on CNN and Fox, but rather by an army of normal folks, us. Just you and me deciding, hey, you know what? Maybe I can

help. That's what Brian Schwartz, the voice you just heard, has done. Brian is the founder of I Want to Mow Your Lawn, which started with him deciding to mow lawns of folks in need in his area. And it has turned into his own army of 1,404 normal folks mowing the lawns of over 2,000 people. I cannot wait for you to meet Brian right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Hey y'all, I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. Hey y'all, I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. When You're Invisible is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who

shaped me. Season 2 shares stories about community and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks, let's do something about it. We get paid to serve you, but we're made out of the same things. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the testament.

Listen to When You're Invisible on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I spoke with more actors, musicians, policymakers, and so many other fascinating people like writer and actor Dan Aykroyd. I love writing more than anything. You're left alone, you know, you do three hours in the morning, you write three hours in the afternoon, go pick up

a kid from school, then write at night, and after nine hours you come out with seven pages, and then you're moving on. Listen to Here's the Thing on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why would you do that to me? Los Angeles, 2021. A friendly neighbor appears out of nowhere and promises to make all my dreams come true.

Let's not forget that David Blum was a professional con artist. neighbor appears out of nowhere and promises to make all my dreams come true. Let's not forget that David Blum was a professional con artist, so you didn't stand a chance. But my dreams soon turned into a nightmare. I'm Caroline DeMore. Listen as I take down my scammer on Once Upon a Con on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A rapper way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Hi, I'm Bob Pitman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. I'm excited to share my podcast with you, Math and Magic, Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. This week I'm talking to the CEO of Moderna, Stefan Bancel, about how he led his team through unprecedented times

to create, test, and distribute a COVID vaccine all in less than a year. He becomes a human decision to decide to throw by the window your business strategy and to do what you think is the right thing for the world. Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math, and the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to Math and Magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

your podcast. Hey everybody, welcome back. So here's the deal. I do business in a lot of different countries and have an office. What? Excuses. Excuses. excuses and I have I have an office in Shanghai and had a contingent here from China when we did this interview and Alex apparently texted me the date and the time of the interview and I agreed to do that and put it on my calendar and

didn't so while I had a bunch of people from China in my office trying to do business, our guest Brian showed up for his interview and so all the way from New York all the way. Gosh. Anyway, basically, I'm a loser and I double booked by time and Alex aptly filled in for me. You know what would solve this Bill? What's that? We've only talked about it like a hundred times.

Which is what? A Google calendar. No. Like I can put things, like the rest of the world, okay, has adopted these things called digital calendars. The paper calendar that I have, the batteries can never go dead in it. Except it's not, does it work?

It does work. Your process failed. I think you just need to send me a master or something. But I'm not doing Google Calendar because I don't want the battery to go out my calendar. I've never had the battery go out of my computer. I charge it, like, and I charge my phone like it's not a problem. Anyways, Brian is a middle-class dude from Wayne, New Jersey who showed up and I know showed him but Alex handled the interview quite well. So let's go to the conversation with Alex on working in

Manhattan. You know, I grew attached to this company and sadly they decided to let go of all the US employees in my department, like outsourcing overseas. And this is, this was 2015. This is, so this isn't the first time I've, this is the first time I ever got laid off and lost my job. So 2015 thankfully bounced back to work for another agency that later got acquired by some other company and got laid off again 2015. So in that moment in 2015 I was questioning my own self-worth and wondering what's up. Were you married at the time I met my wife Jennifer in 2014 so she was with me like right in like the heat of it all one year of dating we got married in 2018 so she stuck by me during some crazy times

so I knew that I needed to change and work for an agency where I was with for three and a half years and I learned there that the grass isn't always greener. No pun intended like because I heard from a recruiter that offered to pay more with an easier commute for me and I was getting ready to start a family, bought a house and this is the company that I was with when the pandemic started. So we all started working from home and it was June of 2020 that I thought I was getting a phone call from HR about paternity leave. We were expecting our first newborn.

And how long from then? So yeah, so it was June 8th of 2020. So he was slated to, he was going to be born in July of 2020. So it was June of 2020, like a month prior. So at that moment, my wife is eight months pregnant. Let me, I'm sorry, let me trace back a second. So it was, before I joined this company, it was Thanksgiving of, this is an important part, Thanksgiving,

like right before Thanksgiving of 2018, I was still with that one agency I was with for a few years and received a call from my father directly, my biological father that he, they found a tumor in his brain and required surgery. So I was in shambles, like trying to understand like what's going on. And so, and he was living in Boston with his new wife

and his two kids who at the time were like young teens. And my coworkers pulled me aside. We went downstairs, like I tried to get myself together. And he called me and told me that it was pretty much a stage four, glioblastoma, like the most aggressive form of brain cancer. And I think the commonest person was my father, like he was telling us it's okay, like, he's had a good life. He's got four kids. He was 65 at the time. Young, young. Yeah. I mean, the most

admirable trait of his was his brain, his brain, like he was so smart, like, doing stuff for like, the government, I never really understood all the stuff he was doing. But we went out there to support like some of the surgeries. He went through some treatments. The doctors only gave him 15 months to live. And this was Thanksgiving of 2018. Fast forward, he surpassed doctor projections. He met his first grandson.

And this was the summer of 2020. So to sheer willpower, he met his first grandson. And it was like early, well, towards the tail end of 2020 that he saw this nonprofit get started. He was one of the first to- Jumping ahead. Yeah, I'm jumping- You get the phone call from HR.

Yeah, so now, okay. Now, so going back to this latest agency that I was with in 2020. telling me they're let me go straight up. And they knew that I was expecting a newborn. And they knew that my father was battling an illness. Mind you, at the same time, like I just had a grandfather who just passed like months prior, before the pandemic, thankfully we had a proper burial for him. I was really close with him.

And combine everything that just happened there in that moment, thinking about losing a job that was pretty much six figures going to zero and going to have to collect unemployment, go on a mortgage forbearance. That's the first time you had ever done either of those things, going on unemployment and mortgage forbearance. Is that the first time you had ever done either of those things? Going on employment and mortgage forbearance?

First time, yeah, both. Yeah. Both. Is that, yep. That was the first time I had to do that. So that was obviously very stressful between that and my wife having the first newborn trying to, having to deliver the news to her was quite stressful combined with telling my father like

who's you know battling an illness, terminal illness and everything else going on in the world with COVID and societal unrest and yeah so they told me 2020 and I think it was like a few weeks later Yeah, so they told me 2020 and I think it was like a few weeks later. Well, it was a few days later that on a whim, I just said, you know, I understand that volunteering in the time of job transition is helpful for oneself, not just for yourself, but as almost like a conversational piece for possible employers. And I probably could have just signed up to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity or any other. Which is great, too. Yeah, of course. By all means, yes.

But I didn't have I felt like I didn't have any control over anything. So I just on a whim utilize some of my advertising website background just to create a website adding some simple contact information called. I want to mull your lawn calm very straightforward That's funny. You started a website out the gate rather than just like a few days later doing it Maybe for a couple of people first and eventually you get around to website. Yeah so I I it was a culmination of events between

millions of people losing their jobs, older adults being vulnerable to the virus, the co, the, yeah, just in a parallel universe, I might not have, I probably would not have made such a decision. I'd still be in my own world commuting into New York City, living the high life, working for an advertising agency, commuting every day, versus leaning in and adapting to the times. I could have just stayed holed up and been depressed at home,

but instead of just putting out to my LinkedIn network that I'm looking for a job, can someone help me? Just asking for something. I wanted to add to something. I tuned out social media for a job, can someone help me? Like just asking for something. I wanted to add to some, I wanted, because I tried to, I tuned out social media for a while, just with all the bad news going on. But I wanted to contribute some way, I felt like I was still fully capable,

like I'm very big into going to the gym and staying active. And at that time, like the gyms were, you know, on lockdown for a few months, I wanted to do something active. So just, mowing my own lawn was a form of therapy for me so it just it made perfect sense as like kind of like a social distant activity and thinking about my late grandfather who just passed and thinking about the stress that some families were going through it it just, I put, it made perfect sense in that moment to offer just mowing to people that couldn't use it.

And so I advertised, I put that on my website, posted it up on social media, and that same day I get a call from a local news reporter and did like a news story on it. And this was like before I even had no vision. Before you had moat anyone's lawn yet? Before I moored anyone's lawn. I think they should have waited until you had at least moored one lawn. Yeah. But I guess the the same, you know, laid off individual once again, it wasn't like a mainstream thing.

Yeah, just like a local TV spot. And I remember speaking with him, he's like, you sure you want to do this? like a mainstream thing. Yeah, just like a local TV spot. And and he I remember speaking with him. He's like, you sure you want to do this? You're probably get a lot of phone calls. Make sure I got nothing to lose. Like, did you give out your phone number or just I set up actually in that right before I even have like the business website address had the the website but I also have like a

business phone number just thinking ahead that I would probably get a gazillion phone calls. So no one was calling my personal cell phone. And that's still the same phone number we use to this day. And yeah, so the story came out, the story came out, I put up a Facebook page and repurpose that and threw a few advertising dollars with some money that I did have save up just to keep my mind, my body, my soul stimulated

because it's like, it was super stressful, right? So I heard you in another interview and it's an interesting thing that, I mean, you just lost your income and yet I think you spent around $500 in advertising on Facebook. Whereas most people in that moment, I wanted to reflect on this a little bit earlier too, were just, thankfully I've not been through that.

So I haven't had the experience, as I was telling you in the car, I've been through divorce and other ugly things I didn't want in my life, but I have not had a layoff that I've dealt with. And like the fear of where are you going to make money? And how hard I mean, I'm sure it's hard for a woman to tell her husband, too. But for, you know, feel a man to come home and tell your wife that, you know, and how you would feel about yourself, I'm sure, you know, all those are tough. You know, raising a son and raising a new boy.

And then obviously needing to protect your money money too, because you don't know the future, you know, and yet you're willing to spend $500 that you probably shouldn't be doing to try to help other people is nuts. I don't know what got like, it feels like a blur. But I feel like at the same time, like, I could at least get the word out. Because it was a win-win for all, right? I'm trying to do something good for humanity, do something for myself that makes me feel good.

I felt like that would also be a talking point for potential, again, this was when I didn't even, it didn't become a nonprofit yet. I had no visions, no plans, just to stay busy until I figured out the next step in my life. Right, and I felt like I can speak to that advertising aspect for any potential employer that might come.

So I did throw like a link to like my portfolio on that website at that time. So it was like a win-win for everyone with hopes that somebody would see it and consider reaching out. And I did hear from some people along the way for job opportunities from doing that specifically. That was my mindset at the time.

And so putting the advertising dollars to anyone that was in within a five mile radius 65 years and older and I started to develop like a pretty decent portfolio of homes within 20 mile radius. I was saying yes to everything I think I found myself going 30 miles each way. Alright so like how many homes are in this radius? There's a lot. Thousands upon thousands. But how many did you hear from? I must have thinking back to the original campaigns probably a couple hundred.

Wow. I assume you didn't cut a couple hundred loans yourself? No. To this day maybe I'm around 150 myself. Really? Individual homes. Holy cow. I'm like a... Five years later. Total or on a regular basis?

Total. Okay. Which I'll get into. Yeah. In terms of frequency. Yeah, you and Rodney are nuts, but we'll get into that in a minute. Yeah. Rodney, yeah.

And now, a few messages from our generous sponsors, but first I hope you'll consider signing up to join the Army at NormalFolks.us. By signing up, you'll receive a weekly email with short episode summaries in case you happen to miss an episode or if you prefer reading about our incredible guests. We'll be right back. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society, but who have never been interviewed before. Season 2 is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks, let's do something about it. I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account, or else I can't get disability benefits.

They won't let you succeed. I know we get paid to serve you guys, but like be respectful. We're made out of the same things, bone, body, blood. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the MyCultura podcast network.

Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I am Bob Pipman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. I'm excited to introduce a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. I'm having conversations with some interesting folks across a wide range of industries to hear how they reach the top of their fields and the lessons they learned along the way that everyone can use.

I'll be joined by innovative leaders like Chairman and CEO of Elf Beauty, Tarang Amin. The way I approach risk is constantly try things and actually make it okay to fail. I'm sitting down with legendary singer-songwriter and philanthropist, Jule. I wanted a way to do something that I loved for the rest of my life. We're also hearing how leaders brought their businesses out of unprecedented times, like Stephane Boncel, CEO of Moderna.

It becomes a human decision to decide to throw by the window your business strategy and to do what you think is the right thing for the world. Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math and the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to math and magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcast. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care.

Visit adoptUSkids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSkids, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. Join me every week as I tell some of the most enthralling true crime stories about women who are not just victims, but heroes,

or villains, or often, somewhere in between. Listen to the greatest true crime stories ever told on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why would you do that to me when I thought we were friends? We are friends. Los Angeles, 2021. A friendly neighbor appears out of nowhere and promises to make all my dreams come true. Let's not forget that David Blum was a professional con artist, so you didn't stand a chance.

But my dreams soon turned into a nightmare. Blum generally targeted people with money. And I was not alone. He took over a hundred people for over $15 million. One of the victims was his own grandmother. I was married to David for almost 10 years. It was insane. I was barely functioning.

And I just had this realization that he will not stop until he kills me. Getting a con artist to pay for their crimes isn't easy. I'm Caroline DeMore. Listen as I take down my scammer on Once Upon a Con on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So when I started to feel like it's getting to be too much, I decided to kind of just put a press release out to like a larger newspaper. And so when it was getting to be too much, tell me like what that was like in a week. Like at that point, how many lawns were you doing a week? I was doing like on average three to four a day on like a busy day. It's a lot. Yeah. Yeah.

I had a few a few extra hours to spare. a lot yeah yeah a few a few extra hours to spare just folding up my personal gas mower into the back of the family Jeep you know grass clippings everywhere gasoline smell and I had a baby seat right in the middle and what's your wife saying about all this yeah this can't go on for good I mean I was probably gonna car wash every week or so. And she's like, I don't want to be spending money on the car wash or the gas. Yeah, like, yeah, I should be applying to jobs rather than like, I mean, honestly, what she's saying to you.

So a pivotal moment of that was in August of 2020, there's a larger newspaper that came out to run a story, which ultimately inspired a couple others that were in a similar boat, that were laid off or furloughed, had the equipment and a means to transport it around. A guy named Tom, a guy named Pete, first two volunteers. And so I was able to distribute out the tasks

at the same time from that same, from during that same period, I heard from a local orthopedic surgeon office. And it was brilliant on his behalf, right? Cause he, his demographic is mostly like older adults with back issues and stuff. And he saw a clip of me somewhere with like lifting up my mower

putting in the back of the family Jeep and so they they purchased a 6x12 enclosed trailer With like branding and everything and of course we slapped their logo on it. They're called the one oak medical So I was literally awesome. I was literally able to lug around this trailer on the back of my Jeep within a matter of a couple of months of just doing it. It wasn't even a nonprofit yet. And you didn't reach out to this person. They reached out to you. They reached out to me.

That's amazing. Dr. Mahmood. So I had a chance to visit with them. And they gave me a free checkup and stuff and a free back brace. So that was cool just to keep going and I still have it in my in my driveway just pulling stuff around so that was like a game changer right there just not having to use our family jeep and so from there I'm like you know maybe you keep going see where

this goes. And what you never know who's watching and I guess one thing after another like a nationwide news thing picked it up like CBS. CBS Saturday morning. Yeah. And for the name but it was Nancy Chen was one of the was the the woman that was there in person but yeah a producer like left me a voicemail I'm like is this real like I have to like listen to it a couple times and call back and it was like a week later they scheduled a shoot at a couple homes of guys that we were doing and both homeowners were gracious enough to also take part in that.

And that just blew things up. I think to this day I'm still trying to process that. Surreal. Thinking back, I try to start up these businesses, and I might have sold one for a decent amount. Nothing crazy, but mostly failed. It was all digital stuff. And I can understand what it's like to receive any form

of media mention. So I didn't take it for granted, right? And so I wanted to kind of parlay that into something almost bigger than myself. Like. So what happened in that moment? Like what was going on on your phone and the website? I'm getting, like, well, first I gave the heads up

to my personal network that this is airing tomorrow. And after it aired, I got a video text message from a friend that lives in California showing the video in his living room with his little toddler looking at it. And I'm like, is this really happening? Like, I'm actually, is this really happening? Like, I'm actually, like, there's this kid here like absorbing something 2,000 miles away from where I live.

I'm like, and then I'm getting, I get a video from my stepmom with my father who is in his later stages sitting in the living room or kitchen with my half brother, half sister, seeing him like in tears, which you never really saw a whole lot of. And like, I remember him saying, that's your brother. And I still have that video in my phone.

I look at it here and there. And then I- You're close to tearing up right now, talking about it. Yeah, I knew that he was just proud of me. And I think he saw what I was, I guess, trying to do in that moment because thinking about our own mortality.

And so that's personal motivation that keeps me going, knowing that he's still proud and looking down and living through me. So I just want to keep making him proud. So in that yeah so that news story just opened up Pandora's box in a good in a good way. I'm hearing from people everywhere from California to Texas looking for help, wanting to help, donations, like you're hearing like Venmo that I had set up there like just ching, ching, ching. And I started to hear from perfect strangers and connections saying you should actually

make this into like a nonprofit. And I looked into it and ultimately started a GoFundMe that allowed for us to create the 501C3 that it is today. That's kind of funny, too. You didn't think about it before the interview dropped. Yeah, no, I didn't know where again, I was just following my heart. Yeah. Just kept mowing. And yeah, just from that point, things are so what were the volume of like, do you have any sense of it? If people reach it out, either in total or how many looking to volunteer? How many looking for help?

Well, I'll tell you, at least to this present day, that business phone number that I had set up, we tracked over 10,000 phone calls to date, lifetime to date, through this past season. Wow. So this past year alone, 3,000 phone calls have been tracked. Going back to my advertising days, we had a voicemail tracking system that I was able to have donated, like an enterprise software, where we have like 500 free minutes per month. And just putting a lot of the ducks in a row to this day, there's been multiple iterations, like focus a lot on the technology,

have reinvest everything, haven't taken a dime for myself. It's all just volunteer based. All right. So keep telling us how it grew and how did things develop after the CBS hit. An interesting part that definitely helped get things going was I was creating these partnerships to a degree, officially, unofficially, some with my network that I've already built up. So I mentioned that voicemail translation, I'm sorry, the voicemail tracking platform that I had worked with

in the past from the Atex space. And then there was also someone else in my network that worked for like a background screening platform and partnered with them in order to help like speak to people that might be hesitant to receive a volunteer. So we wanted to at the time screen volunteers. Fast forward to today, we don't do that anymore because we have our own mechanisms to do the screening of individuals that want to help. But in that moment, they're based out of Houston, Texas area. And so we announced this unofficial partnership on LinkedIn that just by chance some other volunteers saw this announcement.

And that person, there's this woman named Lauren who is based out of Houston, laid off a mother of two, signed up and offered to help, and got her set up. And I followed that same methodology laid off a mother of two, signed up and offered to help, and got her set up. And I followed that same methodology I did with, for myself, just to generate some leads, to generate leads in the Houston area, 65 and older, five miles,

and built up a portfolio for this woman on her behalf. With like, I set up a profile. This is all manual, by the way, like I set up like a profile for Lauren and she had like five or six seniors that she was helping in the Houston community. And I was proactive. I reached out to like a few different new stations in Houston that ultimately found it to be interesting. A mother of two laid off helping out seniors and they did like a plug on her. So I was able to like repurpose that for our social media and like start showing clips. And that was just when we had Facebook.

Fast forward to today, we have six active social media channels, like building up content. And so that was like how we built up, like started in these pockets of areas. So we have like, from that segment, more people signing up from Houston and volunteers. And so one of our most, I like to call him a Volunstar. His name is Jim. I think he saw like one of our most, I like to call him a Volin star. His name is Jim. I think he saw like one of Lauren's

plugs and he's this guy is a machine. He's been going nonstop, helping like a disabled war veteran in Houston and a couple of others that we've sent his way. We've been able to get him some equipment upgraded. So all these like little things. We'll be right back. Hey y'all, I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. My podcast, When You're Invisible, is my love letter to the working class people

and immigrants who shaped my life. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society, but who have never been interviewed before. Season two is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks. Let's do something about it. I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account or else I can't get disability benefits. They won't let you succeed. I know we get paid to serve you guys,

but like be respectful. We're made out of the same things, bone, body, blood. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the MyCultura podcast network. I have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Bob Pitman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. I'm excited to introduce a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. I'm having conversations with some interesting folks across a wide range of industries to hear how they reach the top of their fields and the lessons they learned along the way that everyone can use. I'll be joined by innovative leaders like Chairman and CEO of Elf Beauty, Tarang Amin. The way I approach risk is constantly try things and actually make it okay to fail. I'm sitting down with legendary singer, songwriter

and philanthropist, Jule. I wanted a way to do something that I loved for the rest of my life. We're also hearing how leaders brought their businesses out of unprecedented times, like Stephane Boncel, CEO of Moderna. He becomes a human decision to decide to throw by the window your business strategy and to do what you think is the right thing for the world.

Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math, and the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to Math and Magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend.

At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptUSkids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. Join me every week as I tell some of the most enthralling true crime stories about women who are not just victims, but heroes or villains, or often somewhere in between.

Listen to the greatest true crime stories ever told on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why would you do that to me when I thought we were friends? We are friends. Los Angeles, 2021. A friendly neighbor appears out of nowhere

and promises to make all my dreams come true. Let's not forget that David Bloom was a professional con artist, so you didn't stand a chance. But my dreams soon turned into a nightmare. Blum generally targeted people with money. And I was not alone. He took over 100 people for over $15 million.

One of the victims was his own grandmother. I was married to David for almost 10 years. It was insane. I was barely functioning, and I just had this realization that he will not stop until he kills me. Getting a con artist to pay for their crimes isn't easy. Charge David Blum!

I'm Caroline DeMore. Listen as I take down my scammer on Once Upon a Con on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. ["Once Upon a Con"] Again, we just started doing mowing. While we're on premise, people are asking us about other services we might not specialize in, which inspired us to add all these other service offerings to the volunteer side and the client side.

Effectively, we operate almost like a matchmaker for people that are looking for help and people that want to help. What other things? I'm sure snow, but... Leaf removal, snow removal. We're also getting requests for like home services such as pest control, tree removal door widening so like not saying that we're offering it we're at least collecting this information with hopes to Make more connections with people to make these kinds of referrals. Maybe if they can't do it for free Maybe they can offer some deep senior citizen military veteran discount We're kind of like the tip of the glacier, building the trust with people, coming to their properties with hopes that we can

maybe establish this network of other professionals or volunteers that might specialize in these things. Yeah, so like for instance we had a guy in Minnesota that went around to do 12 different homes when it was a bad snowstorm. And that got some publicity which helped us attract more volunteers in Minnesota. So you follow that, we've been following that same method in terms of earned media and utilizing social media to help get the word out. And ultimately do more good at the end of the day. Yeah, no, and then again, like, yeah,

just more than anything is the impacts, right? We've been able to track conservatively 2,000 unique homes that we've been to. And that's not accounting for some that are doing regular visits. Like some are cutting these folks' grass every week or every other week on an ongoing basis? Right. And one thing that we, you know, there's been a lot of learning lessons along the way in

terms of expectations. So one of the things that we've implemented is our expectations of service language, ensuring people know that we're not a replacement for landscapers. We do what we can when we can, almost as temporary relief. But there is exceptional cases where, again, we just provide the leads and we provide volunteer accident insurance coverage to volunteers.

We've been able to send yard signs to show neighbors like what's going on, like why someone's there. Sending out a tire through some of the funds raised, but ultimately just providing some ounce of relief. But there is exceptional cases where people have more time than others. Recently retired, super active. I have some guys that are going around regularly

logging like tens, if not hundreds of hours with dozens of regular repeat clients. They're not as tech savvy enough to like log into our platform and track their hours and report back to us. So we're doing the best we can to conservatively at least track the visits that are being made. But we've at least made strides with the technology, allowing for volunteers to log into our dashboard,

add their hours, and talk about their experience, upload before and after photos. Because in the past, it was myself or one of our back end volunteers reaching out trying to pry that information or remind them. So now we have the website as well as like an actual SMS texting feature where they can organically just text photos to a phone number we have. And it recognizes their phone number that's attached to their account.

So we can log that information and then we just have like a templated sequence of like robotic questions that are automatically logging it. So as I'm speaking to you now, connections are potentially being made. I just saw like five in the morning, we have a volunteer nearby that is looking for help. Can you be of assistance? Came a long way to get it to this point.

Like there's so many parts that have had to have come together between having volunteers nearby, but also having like the technology to detect someone is nearby. It was a couple years ago, I literally had virtual paid assistance super part-time on the books, manually typing in Google Maps for someone that might be nearby that we have like this huge Excel list.

We have over 1,400 actively enlisted volunteers all across the USA and even some in other countries. And we actually have like a, there's an actual visual map now updating in real time. If and when they're reviewed and approved, automatically it pins them into our visual map and you can zoom in, like pinch and zoom, and see their profile and their general area, obviously thinking about like privacy. So it just shows like a general vicinity.

But to be able to have someone sign up and for us to alert someone, like so proud of how far we come. There's still a lot to be done. I mentioned the 2,000 or so homes we've been to, but we've had way more requests than we can handle. So still so much that could be done in terms of the supply side. There's a big demand for our service.

Have put a lot of effort into also like some of the search engine optimization as well. Yeah, it's an amazing tech platform you built. And I know you've, you're back employed. You've been working for, you know, many years now. So it's like, you know, you, you have a normal job and yet you've been building out this, you know, tech platform and running this thing.

Like, are you doing this nights, weekends? Like Like it seems like a lot of work to build out. It's very overwhelming I Saw a quote somewhere was actually at the post office the other day that Said that at the end of the day you're doing the best you can with what you got and that's good enough so I found myself like I Feel like if I didn't have some of these technology automation improvements in place, there's no way it would have been able to sustain without because obviously there's no paid salaries employees like manning the ship a lot of it still falls on me.

And there's still a human element, right? So yeah, there's there's definitely putting a way more time into it. But thankfully, I have my employer's blessing to do this on the side. There's no conflict. As time permits, I have my wife's support and family support to do that. And of course I have a four and a half year old son at home

and a newborn that's two months old, so that's definitely tiring. But yeah, another thing I also forgot to mention as part of the technology, we received a grant from a local credit union to improve on a couple things. One is scoring the homeowner leads that come in and helping determine the ones that are the most in need versus the ones that are not. So we ask everything under the sun to ensure that it's not someone that could probably afford it or do it themselves or might

be taking advantage of it. So we try to prioritize low to moderate household income for starters. And of course, some of the other things we take into account is if they live alone or if they have children that are physically abled. So there's this algorithm in place that helps us find the ones that are most pressing.

So it's a form of arbitrage, just getting around to the ones that are in need. And of course, we have to take into consideration if we have the coverage for it. And I mentioned the... So a few ways that homeowners are reaching out to us, it's through the website, through social media, through email, and through voicemail.

We try to get everyone to sign up on the website because it just has everything that we need. But if they're reaching out over the phone, a little less tech savvy, we had another grant that enabled us to automate, translate what is being said over voicemail in real time. They're telling us the zip code which allows for us to detect their nearby location. So we follow that same logic that we do with the website to alert somebody in real time that there's a voicemail nearby.

And then we pass along that voicemail recording to the volunteers that they can listen to and dial back directly. Thinking back to a couple of years ago, I had a call center agent overseas, dialing back these voicemails, trying to make a connection and asking this information is costly, it's not sustainable. So it's been a year of efficiency and automation,

just trying to scale up this kindness platform. And you mentioned it a minute ago, how many total requests have come in to date? I don't think you said the number, but. Multiply what we've been able to do by five. It's like one in every five. So about 10,000. 10,000.

Yeah. Lifetime to date. Yeah. So there's lots of work to be done in terms of recruiting help. But we're improving. You know, we revamped our intake. I had help with a Google Translate designer

to fix our navigation and the experience. Hired on some developers overseas to just improve that. There's still work. I'm getting emails even to this day about certain uploads not working or not taking long enough. So there's all these little intricacies. There's a lot that goes on under the hood. And you got another job. And I got a job. Yeah.

It's a lot. It's impressive what you've done. Thank you. It's hard. Again, there's been times where I thought about shutting it down. I don't there's nothing left. I don't have anything to prove to anyone. I'm challenging myself to see how far I can go. And when we make those connections and I get like those thank yous, not just from homeowners and their neighbors, but volunteers for making those, for helping set that up because like,

I'll echo like feedback from one specific volunteer named Tom that said he might have only spent 10 minutes doing lawn care for this military veteran and then ended up speaking for 20, 30 minutes afterwards with a guy like speaking his ear off and he's like, what about the human connection? Which that veteran probably needed to. For sure. It's a big loneliness epidemic going on in the country. And that concludes part one of Alex's conversation with Brian Schwartz and you don't want to

miss part two that's now available to listen to. Together guys, we can change this country and it starts with you. I'll see you in part two. Hey y'all, I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. When You're Invisible is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped me. Season 2 shares stories about community and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks, let's do something about it.

We get paid to serve you, but we're made out of the same things. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I spoke with more actors, musicians, policymakers,

and so many other fascinating people, like writer and actor Dan Aykroyd. I love writing more than anything. You're left alone. You know, you do three hours in the morning, you write three hours in the afternoon, go pick up a kid from school, and write at night. And after nine hours, you come out with seven pages, and then you're moving on. Listen to Here's the Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your

podcasts. Why would you do that to me? Los Angeles, 2021. A friendly neighbor appears out of nowhere and promises to make all my dreams come true. Let's not forget that David Blume was a professional con artist. So you didn't stand a chance. But my dreams soon turned into a nightmare. I'm Caroline DeMore.

Listen as I take down my scammer on Once Upon a Con on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent,

like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptUSKids.org to learn more.

Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I am Bob Pipman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. I'm excited to share my podcast with you, Math and Magic, Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. This week, I'm talking to the CEO of Moderna, Stephane Bancel, about how he led his team through unprecedented times

to create, test, and distribute a COVID vaccine all in less than a year. It becomes a human decision to decide to throw by the window your business strategy and to do what you think is the right thing for the world. Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math, and the ever-important creative spark, the world.