An Army of Normal Folks - How to Turn Your Spending Into Someone's Second Chance. Or First Chance (Pt 1)

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

What if the thing that changed someone’s life wasn’t charity — but a purchase? In this episode, Lauren McCann shares the deeply personal story of her brother’s struggles with mental health, addiction, and homelessness — and the $10,000 art purchase that helped spark his transformation. That moment didn’t only restore his confidence, it also inspired Lauren to build Procure Impact, an extraordinary marketplace connecting businesses to mission-driven suppliers such as ones who employ survivors of trafficking, people in recovery, adults with disabilities, and those returning from prison. You’ll learn why opportunity often works better than intervention, how bottom-up solutions outperform top-down programs, and how your everyday spending decisions can become part of your service journey. This conversation might just change the way you think about helping others.Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/#joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. In 2018, the FBI took down a ring of spies working for China's Ministry of State Security, one of the most mysterious intelligence agencies in the world. The Sixth Bureau podcast is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its fault of secrets.

Listen to the Sixth Bureau on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpright became the victim of a random crime. The perpetrator was sentenced to 99 years until a confession changed everything. I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2,

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult?

NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, aka Neurilingual programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Lettby, we unpack the story of an unimaginable tragedy that gripped the UK in 2023. But what if we didn't get the whole story? I've just been made to fit.

The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapsed. What if the truth was disguised by a story we chose to believe? Oh my God, I think she might be innocent. Listen to Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My brother's story hit sort of an inflection point. He had been dealing with mental health issues compounded by addiction and a disability. There's an organization called Artlifting, and they specifically represent artists

who've been on house and artists with disabilities. And they started representing him and his art to corporate buyers. At one point, Pfizer bought a painting. At one point, an airport bought a painting. And in each purchase, he was getting this confidence boost, right? Like, he felt seen, he felt valued. And then Amazon was building one of their data centers in the DC area.

They picked eight of his original paintings for that building. It's $10,000. He'd never seen a $10,000 check at that point. It completely changed his life. The thing that kept me up at night was, how do we scale what happened to my brother? 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'm a football coach in inner city Memphis. And that last part, somehow it led to an Oscar for the film about one of my teams. That movie is called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems are never going to be solved by a bunch of fancy people wearing nice suits,

using big old words that nobody ever really uses on CNN and Fogs, but rather by just an army of normal folks. Guys, that's us, just you and me saying, you know what, maybe I can help. That's what Lauren McCann, the voice you just heard, is done. And in only three and a half years, she has scaled what happened to her brother. Procure Impact is a business-to-business marketplace where businesses can secure products they need from mission-based suppliers, such as folks who employ survivors of human trafficking, people in recovery, and those returning from prison. The marketplace helps the social enterprises grow.

It helps their people grow, and their customers grow through meaningful products that help them stand out among the competition. Believe this or not, today, procure impact is an extraordinary marketplace of over 100 suppliers who provide 6,000 products to over 2,500 hotels across the country. The story is phenomenal. I cannot wait for Lauren to teach all of us how to use our own unique experiences to create a better world right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government.

is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's a unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS

and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to the sixth bureau on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, a story gripped the UK, evoking horror and disbelief. The nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history. Everyone thought they knew how it ended.

A verdict, a villain, a nurse. named Lucy Letby. Lucy Letby has been found guilty. But what if we didn't get the whole story? The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, doubt the case of Lucy Lettby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it,

to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Lettby was. No voicing of any skepticism or doubt. It'll cause so much harm at every single level of the British establishment of this is wrong. Listen to doubt the case of Lucy Letby on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast.

This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpbright became the victim of a random crime. He pulls the gun, tells me to lie down on the ground. He identified Jermaine Hudson as the perpetrator. Germain was sentenced to 99 years.

I'm like, Lord, this can't be real. I thought it was a mistaken identity. The best lie is partial truth. For 22 years, only two people knew the truth until a confession changed everything. I was a monster. Listen to burden of guilt Season 2 on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious.

NLP, aka neurolinguistic programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain. It's about engineering consciousness. Mind Games is the story of NLP. It's crazy cast of disciples and the fake doctor who invented it at a new age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all, NLP might actually work.

This is wild. Listen to Mind Games on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Lauren McCann, welcome to Memphis. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. So everybody, Lauren, is the co-founder and CEO of Procure Impact, which is really a fascinating venture that I can't wait to get into, and I can't help but think you didn't really plan, but almost arrived at. That is very true.

Definitely wasn't on the bingo card to be an entrepreneur. Yeah, that's kind of cool. But we're going to get down to that. But first, we've got to set it up, let everybody know kind of your perspective, which I also find vastly interesting. And I kind of want to open with talking to you about your brother, who I feel like, as I read it, maybe has been a part of the inspiration for your work. And interestingly, at one time, he was unhoused. He was missing. And it was in the middle of a mental health crisis. And when you hear the word procure impact and you hear that set up, you would think, oh, she's probably

working in unhoused folks and things like that. And we've highlighted people who do that. But actually, maybe that's a byproduct of what you do, but that's not really intrinsically what you do. But to set it all up with a brother who was homeless missing in the mental health crisis, what's that like for a sister? I mean, those were pretty dark times for my family and for my brother. He had been dealing with mental health issues compounded by addiction and a disability. He started exhibiting signs in elementary school, middle school. At that time, we didn't have words for that.

We didn't understand the diagnosis. He definitely self-medicated, which then turned into addiction. But he has severe mental health issues. And, you know, he's been on a journey trying to figure out the right care to help him stabilize and live a meaningful life. You know, since his diagnosis early in his. his life. And so when you ask, you know, what it was like for a sister, it's pretty devastating to see your sibling dealing with those issues and having such significant barriers to just getting up in the morning and getting a job and feeling fulfilled and feeling valued and the kind

of groundhog day he was dealing with at the time. He'd have moments of stability and then have moments where he was unhoused. He'd have jobs. He'd love and stress would push him over the edge. And so it was, it was really, really difficult. Your poor parents. Yes. I mean, the amount of like hospitalizations and rehabs and the treatment that, you know, you're trying to find the right solutions for your child. The reality, though, is that, like, one in six families are dealing with this. And what I've realized over time is that we often have so much shame and fear around the experience that we don't share and we don't support one another. And there's, you know, neighbors and friends and other people that were in my life

that actually had similar experiences and similar challenges. And if we only just opened up a bit more vulnerably as a society, we could really help one another through those times. Yeah, it's interesting. If someone has breast cancer, we wear ribbons and football players wear pink stuff and we run around and raise a bunch of money for that disease. But mental health disease, we tend to hide in the shadows and have shame about it. Why would we have shame about one disease and almost celebrate working on another? It is an interesting commentary on the way society views mental illness. But we do all have to get our arms around.

It is a disease, no different than heart disease or cancer. That's absolutely right. And, you know, organizations like the National Alliance of Mental Illness and others are out there, you know, shadowproof and addiction, they're really trying to address stigma and bring people out of the shadows. The Phoenix is another one where people are very proud about their sobriety and the resilience and grit and determination it's created in them through those difficult times. So I do think we're making progress. But at the time when my brother was dealing with all of this and it was at its sort of heightened peak, we were pretty hopeless. And

And my A's you reference, like my journey is really based on that experience, that lived experience, realizing the system was broken, realizing that in order to help my brother live a fulfilling life where he had meaning and purpose and he was seen through his strengths instead of through his struggles, we had to do things differently. And my brother's story hit sort of an inflection point. He was the winter period in the D.C. area. It was freezing outside. How old was he at this time?

When reading this story, I never really had perspective on ages. Yeah. My brother had had many bouts of kind of being unhoused or living in his car in different regions of the country. But this was about 10 years ago. And so I'm like, my how old am I? He was in his early 30s at the time. So he wasn't a kid. Yeah, or late 20s, late 20s.

But the point is, if the onset of this is middle school, more than half his life, he'd been struggling with this. Yeah, it was, he was not a kid. Before you go on, and I'm sorry, but I really think it's germane to the story, and I think it matters so that we have real perspective as to your passion behind what amazing thing this whole procure impact is, because it doesn't just, well, I'll get to the word impact, which I think is interesting. But did he ever have times of stark lucidity that with you and his parents, your parents, he would say, you know, I feel lost.

I don't want to be this way. You know, I think everybody can see the story unfolding of the one. wheels coming off. But what about the times where the wheels weren't coming off? How was his interaction with you then? Yeah, I mean, that's such an important question because I definitely, even though I'm painting this picture of how difficult those times were, my brother has always been incredibly gifted. He's a writer. He's a musician. He is an artist. He is philosophical. He is incredibly bright. He always got good grades in school. And so he was able to contribute at times and he would get the job. He would actually sometimes get a job and then get promoted. But his ability

to maintain was always, that's why I described it like Groundhog Day, he would have incidents where his mental health would turn or the stress would get too much and figuring out that right balance to help him live sustainably and manage his health took a very long time. But to your point, oftentimes in those early days, there's a lack of self-awareness about what's going on. And until you get to the point of seeing the patterns, understanding the triggers, understanding how to manage through them,

you're often on that roller coaster and cycle. The roller coaster part, for him certainly, but I can only imagine. imagine the desperation replaced by excitement and hope by the people that love him, you and his parents, that, okay, maybe now he's on the right track. And then just the gut punch when he fell off again, how emotionally tolling that has to be to love and care for somebody that's dealing with all of these types of issues. Absolutely. I mean, the devil. devastation when you know it's not his fault.

I know me. I'd be mad at him at first. That's only a natural human reaction to what are you doing? You know better because when you were lucid, you told me you knew better. But then to have to train your brain and make sure that the humanness of you understands, he's sick. He doesn't want this for him any more than we want this for him. And he's sick. but the whole emotional rollercoaster for him and his loved ones and everything else and for people like him

suffering with mental health issues and then often self-medicating which makes the whole thing worse because alcohol leads to weed and weed leads to whatever else and then that leads to severe addiction that's horrible yeah i mean it for our family you know at those early days you're just in triage mode You know, and then when the patterns continue to show themselves, you start to lose perspective about what's possible because you're just sort of managing the current state. Like you lose... Everything's reactionary.

You're in that fight or flight mode, you know, just trying to triage and firefight through the next wave. And I think we were in that for many years. I think that was the reality of my family dynamic as we were just kind of waiting for a shoe to drop. And now, a few messages from our generous sponsors. But first, I hope you'll consider signing up to join the Army at normalfolks. 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. In 2023, a story gripped the UK, evoking horror and disbelief. The nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history. Everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict? A villain. A nurse named Lucy Letby. Lucy Letby has been found guilty. But what if we didn't get the whole story?

The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, doubt the case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the case. the people that lived it, to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Lettby was. No voicing of any skepticism or doubt. It'll cause so much harm at every single level of the British establishment of this is wrong. Listen to Doubt, the case of Lucy Lettby on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside.

This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's the unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable.

This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its fault of secrets. Listen to the Sixth Bureau on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpbright became the victim of a random crime.

He pulls the gun, tells me to lie down on the ground. He identified Tremaine Hudson as the perpetrator. Germain was sentenced to 99 years. I'm like, Lord, this can't be real. I thought it was a mistaken identity. The best lie is partial truth. For 22 years, only 10. Two people knew the truth until a confession changed everything.

I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious.

NLP, aka neurolinguistic programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain. It's about engineering consciousness. Mind games is the story of NLP. It's crazy cast of disciples. and the fake doctor who invented it at a new age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all, NLP, might actually work. This is wild. Listen to Mind Games on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

All right, last emotional question on this. You said he was smart. You said he's aware when he's not suffering a break or what. whatever words you might call it, I would have to believe that on top of everything else your poor brother is shame. For many years, I think he, especially now that he has perspective on the past and can really look at his actions, yeah, there's a lot of things that he knows he did or mistakes

he made or opportunities he lost. it's almost like watching a movie of your life. And I think that playing in your head can be very debilitating. And again, that's not the whole story. There was also so many bright points of good he was doing and his potential showing during those moments, contributions he was making, art he was creating, things he was writing,

that you knew, underneath all of that, there was a lot, there was a lot, there was a well of ways he could contribute and add value and almost like figuring out how to move your attention towards those negative things, but make those your North Star, how do we, how do we help you do more of that? How do we help you create more consistency to be able to pull those things out? But, I mean, when I look back, it's hard to imagine, like putting myself in his shoes. it's really hard to imagine getting up every day and trying again. I can hear in your words and seeing your face and your body movements as you talk about it,

the great empath that you speak about this with. And there's so much good that's about to come in the story. But I think it's really important for all of those listening to us now, that they understand that mental health issues and folks that have disabilities, and addictions. The homeless person you see on the street that you try to avoid is only a piece of the story, typically. And you have to think about how difficult it is for somebody who has a mental health issue

or addiction or both, that they're also dealing with their own shame and their own issues on top of everything else. And we need to look past the overly, oh, you know, I think we all see the homeless person outside the convenience store looking for a buck. And unfortunately, many times we sum that up. And I think it's important that we don't sum that up. And I think, you know, your candor about your brother gives that some perspective. So thank you for kind of going into that.

But the point is he was homeless. and he was under addiction and he was in his early 20s and something amazing happened. Yeah, so he was pretty in a desperate place for a very long time. And there was this one season that I referenced before where he like just took off without a jacket or a cell phone during freezing temperatures in the D.C. area. and we for many days were working with police to try to locate him, and it had gotten pretty desperate. And to give you a sense at the time, I remember this story distinctly. There was a man who walked off from like a Home Depot who had dementia,

and he was found frozen to death outside. So we were really incredibly worried about his well-being, not having access to medication, obviously not prepared for the elements. And I remember at first the cops were a little bit like, he's probably at a friend's house, you know, he's probably okay. And we're like, no, he's not okay. We as a family got to a pretty desperate point about a week in, and we ended up going public with our story.

And we posted on social media. and it kind of went viral in a very short amount of time. Thousands of people were reposting. I was getting calls from people who were flyering in certain communities. And a miracle happened. I mean, it's the only really way to describe it is that a complete stranger who had seen a man walking on the side of the road without a jacket and thought, that's odd.

happened to see the post on social media like 20 minutes later. And that person was a pregnant rabbi. I mean, you can't make this stuff. What? Yeah, she's literally about to give birth. Has the baby like two weeks later. She has two kids in the car and her husband. And she sees this social media post and said, I think that's who we saw 20 minutes ago. And that family decides to turn around. and my brother is actually not where he was, but they keep searching and they find him. And I'm on Facebook at the time seeing this complete stranger like documenting, hey, we think we saw him, we're turning around, people are commenting on it, boosting it on my page.

And they found my brother, called the police, called us, and he was in a pretty bad spot at that point. Had he stayed outside any longer, it's very likely he would have had frostbite. There's no way he would have been able to survive those elements. And I mean, I just sat there sobbing. You know, this was a complete stranger who just decided to take action without any direct connection to me or my family. And for my brother, that led to him getting help and us really stabilizing him at that time. And very, that same time frame, you know, I mentioned my brother was always a creative, a writer, an artist. My brother was painting to help himself process what he was going through.

And he's a very gifted artist. He's never been taught, you know, in a formal way. he's always just had intuition around his art. And at a time when he was still in the throes of that whole episode, he applied for an organization that represents artists with disabilities. And he applied, he sent them some pictures of his art. And I remember thinking, like, oh, I wish you had worked with me. I wish I could have helped you.

Like, I immediately was kind of big sistering it and trying to intervene. And he knew what he was doing. He applied and showed them some really wonderful pieces. And they ended up picking him to become one of their artists. It's an organization called Artlifting. And they specifically represent artists who've been on House and Artists with Disabilities. And they started representing him and his art to corporate buyers. And the very long story short there is that he started getting, you know,

some random companies buying pieces of his art. one point Pfizer bought a painting at one point an airport bought a painting and in each purchase he was getting this confidence boost right like he felt seen he felt valued and then truly something miraculous happened which is that Amazon was building one of their data centers in the DC area and they wanted to pick a unknown DC area artist and they chose my brother they paid eight of his original paintings for that building. It's $10,000. It's literally more than he'd ever earned. Like, he'd never seen a $10,000 check at that point. And it completely changed his life, that one purchase. And all of this is happening generally in the same time period

where he's walking down the street without a code about to die. This is the same time frame. So when he applied, he was getting help. He was still in like sort of medical care, getting help. And so it was just this absolute godsend, right? He gets this $10,000 check. But obviously, $10,000 isn't enough to sustain you, right? It's not an income.

It's not going to provide housing. It's not going to solve all your problems. But he started to call himself an artist. That indicates self-worth, value. Absolutely. Like that was his job, right? That was his vocation. He ended up taking some of that money. He rented an art studio in Frederick Maryland. And so he had a place to go to paint in this art community. So now you have value in agency. Exactly. And community and purpose and a place to go every day. And he was incredibly prolific during that time and just paint it. all the time. We'll be right back.

In 2023, a story gripped the UK, evoking horror and disbelief. The nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history. Everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict, a villain, a nurse named Lucy Leppie. Lucy Letby has been found guilty. But what if we didn't get the whole story? The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses.

I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt the case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it, to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Lettby was. No voicing of any skepticism or doubt. It'll cause so much harm at every single level of the British establishment of this is wrong. Listen to Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world.

But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question of his life. And that's a unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that.

It was unbelievable. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its fault of secrets. Listen to the Sixth Bureau on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpright became the victim of a random crime.

He pulls the gun. Tells me to lie down on the ground. He identified Tremaine Hudson as the perpetrator. Termaine was sentenced to 99 years. years. I'm like, Lord, this can't be real. I thought it was a mistaken identity. The best lie is partial truth.

For 22 years, only two people knew the truth, until a confession changed everything. I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. NLP, aka neurolinguistic programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain.

It's about engineering consciousness. Mind games is the story of NLP. It's crazy cast of disciples and the fake doctor who invented it at a new age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all, NLP might actually work.

This is wild. Listen to Mind Games on the IHeart Radio Act, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. When we fast forward, that check really acted as a trigger for a mindset change about what he was capable of and what he can contribute to society. And it propelled him to have more confidence in all other aspects of his life. He ended up moving out of my parents' house, you know, a year or so later, he ended up meeting the love of his life.

And you fast forward to today, my brother is married. He is employed full time. He is helping others. His vocation now is actually as a recovery support specialist. He actually helps other people who've dealt with mental health issues and addiction. And he's painting on the side. He has an organization he started with his wife called Art from the Heart, where they gift free art to help people who are dealing with challenges.

he took that moment, that inflection point, that surge opportunity that Amazon provided him through that purchase, and it became the springboard for him. And so when all of that was happening, you know, I had tried so many ways to help my brother, right? Get him into programs, get him access to, you know, various different support services, but what ultimately helped him was getting access to opportunity where he could leverage. his gifts and feel seen and earn income and build confidence, which then became that transitionary period for him that helped him stabilize and live the life he was always wanting to live. And, you know, when we were talking before about this dark period, you know, that we had as a family, like, this was not a conceivable outcome for me. I was wondering, was there ever a time before this that you actually would allow yourself to believe that he would be married and happy and productive in society?

Not hoped, believed. No, I mean, the truth is you get so used to living in crisis that that felt almost like too hard to dream that big for him. and my vision for him wasn't as big as his vision has become for himself. Like, it's, I'm so proud of him for pushing through what, which most people would realize and understand is like incredible barriers to where he is now and what he's building and the way he is serving others. Like, he's also chosen a job. in a vocation and the way where he spends his time to actually reach back into the community and

help other people. It is, it is mind-blowing to me. So, no doubt that's a celebration for your family and for him. But I think it's so vitally important that you learned firsthand through the eyes of your brother and your experience with your brother that value community, agency. all of those things really is the anecdote to so much of what ails some of the most disadvantaged among us. So about the same time you're working at Stand Together, is that right? I was, yeah, yeah.

Tell everybody about Stand Together and what you were doing there. Yeah, Stand Together is a philanthropic community that is working on different solutions that help people break these barriers to opportunity. Can you explain that a little? more talk to a dumb guy from Memphis so that because, you know, our listeners are much smarter than me, but just don't use big words. Sure. So Stand Together is a community of philanthropists and change makers and they are investing in solutions to some of our biggest problems in society. And they have a number of different strategies of how they invest in things around social change. So They invest in education, they invest in business, they invest in communities.

And where I sat within that broader strategies, I was actually one of the first employees that was building their efforts in communities. And what brought me to that work was actually leaders in Stand Together, actually knowing about my experience with my brother, my lived experience, my passion and my heart, or civil society solutions, bottom up solutions to help people improve their lives. Talk about bottom up. Well, it's Stand Together, and I personally, deeply believe, given my life to experience, that the people closest to the problem are often the ones that are most equipped to solve the problem. And, you know, my story is an example of that, frankly, because my experience with my brother helped me gain insights into where there was an opportunity and a gap.

And we at Stand Together, when I was there, invested in models that were helping people break the cycle of poverty. And obviously a job is one of the most impactful ways to do that sustainably. And so we were investing in a lot of workforce development programs at the time. And I would travel all over the country and see these amazing programs that were helping people tap into their innate gifts and talents and skills by helping them learn new services or build products. And when all of that was happening with my brother, the thing that was. that kept me up at night was how do we scale what happened to my brother? Like, how do we make it

easier for people who are buying products, companies that are buying products, to find products made by people who have gifts just like my brother, extraordinary people with extraordinary talents? Because what ultimately changed his life wasn't more charity. It was a purchase. Let's talk about that for a second. Yeah. Well, let's go back and then talk about that for a second, because we're starting to get to your bright idea, is I am, you know, or not, I own a lumber company.

I'm a football coach. You know, I'm pretty simple. And I, like everybody, I have thoughts about things and how things should work, and probably most of them are wrong, and every once a while I'm right, I guess. Before being introduced to the platform of Stand Together, which I wouldn't have ever been introduced to if it wasn't for Alex, the producer, dragging me into this world, which I often do kicking and screaming, I never even contemplated this idea of, bottom up versus top down. Those are like phrases that people to go to Ivy League schools use. I mean, I'm from Ole Miss.

Nobody talks about stuff like that. Sure. Right? I don't even know. When I first heard, I was like, another catch rice, you know? I mean, I just really, honestly, I mean, bottom up versus top down. I mean, that sounds good. And I'm sure it looks good on a pamphlet.

What the hell does that mean? Right. And so I keep hearing it all the time. and then introduced to stand together. And I think you did a good job explaining bottom up. Why don't you explain top down? Yeah. I mean, the kind of classic example is how we attacked poverty for so long through...

We as a country, right? We as a country for many years would design programs in Washington, D.C., study the problem. and then fund programs that met the criteria for the things that we studied, which was very distant from the people on the ground actually working day and day out with the people in communities that were dealing with those barriers themselves. And it was very, it was architected, you know, in a way that felt very clean and academic. But when you actually go to communities and ask them, you know, how do you get access to a job or how do you get access to supportive services,

they'll likely tell you about someone named Sister Edna, you know, who's in the community, who's acting as a conduit. They'll tell you things about the community themselves, like what they need. And people will often parachute in trying to help, right, prescribe a solution to a community. Vershing, ask the community, empower them with resources to solve them. the problem. And that concludes part one of our conversation with Laura McCann. And trust me, there's a lot more to come. Don't miss it in part two. It's now available to listen to. Together, guys, we can change this country. It starts with you. I'll see in part two.

This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. In 2018, the FBI took down a ring of spies working for China's Ministry of State Security, one of the most mysterious intelligence agencies in the world. The Sixth Bureau podcast is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its fault of secrets. Listen to the Sixth Bureau on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast.

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