The Daily Signal - Finding Success and Happiness in Life

Episode Date: July 5, 2022

Tom Lewis knows what it takes to find success and happiness in life. He's a living example.  As founder of the T.W. Lewis Co., an Arizona-based real estate investment company known for its outstanding quality and customer service in the homebuilding industry, Lewis built a thriving business while being a devoted dad. Now, he's sharing his lessons in a book, "Solid Ground: A Foundation for Winning in Work and in Life." Lewis is a supporter of The Heritage Foundation whom I've had the opportunity to get to know over the last few years. He joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to share his insight and inspiration for writing the book. Listen to the episode or read a lightly edited transcript at DailySignal.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, July 5th. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Rob Blewey. On today's show, I speak with Tom Lewis, author of Solid Ground, a foundation for winning in work and in life. We also read your letters to the editor and kick off the week with a good news story. Before we get to today's show, we want to tell you about one of the most popular resources on the Heritage Foundation website, The Guide to the Constitution.

More than 100 scholars have contributed to create a unique line-by-line analysis of our Constitution. The guide is intended to provide a brief and accurate explanation of each clause of the Constitution as envisioned by the framers and as applied in contemporary law. We just celebrated our independence as a nation, so what better time to learn about the Constitution. Just visit heritage.org slash constitution or simply search for the Heritage Foundation guide to the Constitution. Now stay tuned for today's show. Coming up next. Tom Lewis is the founder of the T.W. Lewis Company, an Arizona-based

real estate investment company known for its outstanding quality and customer service in the home building industry. Tom is also a strong supporter of the Heritage Foundation and someone whom I've had the opportunity to get to know over the last few years. And he's here today to talk to us about his book, Solid Ground, a foundation for winning in work and in life. Tom, welcome to the Daily Signal podcast. Thank you, Rob.

It's pleasure to be here. I want to begin, before we get to your book, by having you share more about your amazing life. You have been a successful entrepreneur in real estate. You also have a beautiful family. You've written this amazing book, which has so many life lessons. But before we delve into some of those, tell us about your own experience, maybe some of the successes and failures along the way. Yeah, well, I started off as a Navy, Brett, and moved around a lot. And I was born in Utah, moved to Rhode Island, then went to Pensacola, Florida, then Jacksonville. And then my dad retired from the Navy.

But my mother used to say grow where you're planted. And that was always a good message for me. As a military kid, you know, you learn to adapt. And I think the big lesson there was just being open to experience. You know, that's something that really just helps you learn and grow and be happy. And so we learned to do that early as a military kid. But we always knew where we were from. And our family was from Kentucky.

And we would go back there every summer, spend time with the grandparents. And in hindsight, that made a big impact on me. Just the small town values, the Christian values, just the, you know, my grandparents were wonderful people. And so that was kind of formative for me. But then I got to high school, played high school football. And that taught me a lot of lessons, just teamwork, learning how to lose, had great coaches, really character builders. and then I went to college and joined a fraternity. And again, that was a lot of fun.

I got involved in campus activities, got to know the president of the university through those things. And just kept kind of having new experiences. Traveled a lot, did a lot of fun things. Went to the Marty Gras a few times. I mean, things like that you do in college. But then I majored in engineering, and that was not for me. And, you know, I was good in math, but just engineering. didn't float my boat.

And so I knew I was really born to be in business. And so I went straight to graduate business school at North Carolina. And that really was a wonderful experience for me. Again, kind of taking the next step, running into B-school faculty, which were amazing people, you know, great role models. And I met a lot of good friends there, their lifelong friends. And then I started my career. And probably the best thing about my career is I changed.

jobs every two or three years. And every time you change jobs, you kind of get a promotion, you get a new experience, you get a new city, you get a new boss. And it's just a lot of learning going on. And that's kind of my message in the book, really, in terms of career, is, you know, keep moving, keep learning, keep growing. You know, don't worry about your salary. Don't worry about your bonus. Don't worry about your office. You know, just worry about who your boss is and what you're learning. And so I somehow knew that. But, you know, my father filed bankruptcy when I was 16. And so that kind of, I think, had something to do with the drive that I had. And, you know, there's a chapter in my book on drive. And that's something that you don't see in a lot of books.

But looking back, I tried to kind of connect the dots for myself. And, you know, at age 65, I said, you know, how did I get to where I am? What did I do differently? You know, we had our 50th high school reunion, you know, and you go back to your 50th high school reunion, and you see a lot of your old friends, and most of them didn't do very well, you know, and you wonder, well, why did I do well? What did I do differently? And so kind of borrowing Steve Jobs, you know, connecting the dots phrase, I look back and try to connect the dots. What did I do that help me along my road to achieve success in a good life? And so I put together this book based on 10 principles. And it starts with personal character. Well, and thank you for writing it. It is incredibly

valuable. You've had so many high profile endorsements of the book that obviously it's had a positive effect on so many individuals and somebody who loves these types of books myself, I highly recommend it. And so before we get into some of the details and the different chapters and the content of the book, what was it that inspired you to tell this story and to provide this advice, particularly, I think, to young people who may be struggling right now in our culture with so much doom and gloom out there to have a path forward for their future? Yeah, well, thanks for asking that because, you know, we also gave a lot of scholarships back when we first started our foundation.

And my wife and I would interview these kids for an hour, one on one. And so we started to see the change there and how the millennials or the, you know, during the 2010s, I'd say we saw a change where kids were beginning to show this anxiety. And then through my involvement with the University of Kentucky, they would tell me that a third to a half of the kids in college were changed. taking anxiety medication. I thought, wow, that is sad. You know, so what are they, what are they anxious about? Well, they're anxious about what they're going to do, about who they are, about what their talents are, I mean, what they're going to do with their life. And it's not obvious right now with

the way the world has changed. I'm not sure what I would do if I was 19 right now. So this book has really written to try to calm their nerves and hopefully reduce or eliminate their anxiety by understanding a real model that's based on truth and experience. And it's not all the nonsense that they're hearing in pop culture. And so number one, I thought I had a message to give. And, you know, and I guess the biggest reason was that there were so many bad messages that just bothered me a lot, like follow your passion, do what you love, live your dream. And I heard these kids say that. And I say, what are you going to do when you grow up? I'm going to move to California. You know, that would be their career plan. And then, you know, but so this idea of just, you know,

focusing on yourself and on your happiness. And I'd say, how important is career success to you? And they'd say, well, it's not so important that I would give up my happiness. So they thought success and happiness was a choice. And that success, you had to, it meant money and you had to work, and then you lose your happiness. Well, that's not true. You know, you can be happy and successful or sad and broke, but, you know, it's not one or the other. So I tried to give this what I call wisdom to people

that was really based on truth and experience and to try to give them a path forward that they could count on. Well, I'm glad you mentioned some of those items there because my next question focuses on what you call the podcast. popular myths about building a successful life. And I want to go through a few of those with you right now because that's my favorite part of the book. I really appreciate the time that you spend talking about these.

And let's begin with the first one, which is successful people are just lucky. What do you have to say about that myth? Well, you know, there's a few people that win the lottery and they're lucky, okay? But other than that, if you ever talk to a person that is successful in business, in sports, in radio, in philanthropy, they will tell you how hard it was and how much harder they had to work. And I think successful people just put in more time. They put in – it takes more hours. I mean, if you do a good job, it takes 40 hours a week.

If you do a great job, it takes 60 to 80 hours a week. So the successful people are putting in the 60 and 80 hour weeks, and nobody's seeing it. Even Michael Jordan put in overtime when it came to developing his skills. And so you start with your natural talent. And, you know, successful people are not – you know, there is some good fortune there. I mean, there's – you know, Malcolm Gladwell talked about good fortune. But it's a lot more than good fortune. And another reason I wrote the book is that in the world of success books, which I, like you, Rob, have been a fan of, and I've read most of them,

Dale Carnegie, Stephen Covey, you know, Dale Carnegie had 12 rules. Stephen Covey had seven habits. Then came Malcolm Gladwell's outliers, and he had three things, you know, 10,000 hours, good fortune, and talent, I think. And then came grit, and that's the one that really bugged me, because now success had been boiled down to one trait. You just need grit, and that's it. Well, you know, I started, that book was published in 2016, and that's when I started,

started writing solid ground. And I went back to 10 things, you know, personal character, hard work, goal setting, self-awareness, helping other people. I think that's a big part of success. And so I tried to make it not so simple anymore. Well, Tom, thank you for sharing that. I'm not going to go through all of the myths, but another one I did want you to cover was you have to choose between success and happiness. Yeah. And I mentioned that earlier because I would ask, you know, students, you know, how important is career success? And that was kind of a trick question. I wanted to see what they had to say. And initially, I'd say back around 2000, they would say it's everything. I've got to be successful. My family is depending on me.

And but then it started to become, well, it's not, it's kind of important. They would all say this, but it's not so important that I would give up my happiness. And so they're saying that they thought there was a conflict between hard work and success and happiness. And that you if you worked hard and were successful, you had to sacrifice your happiness. Well, that's not true. You know, Dennis Prager wrote a book, you know, 20 years ago called Happiness is a serious problem. And that's a great book.

But it talks about, you know, happiness is so important, but there's so many myths about it that just aren't true. And, you know, if you go to Africa, those people are the happiest people on the planet, and they have nothing. So success and happiness are unrelated. They're two different things. so you can have one or both or neither. But these kids thought, well, I can either be successful. I can be happy.

I'm going to choose. And they're being told to choose happy. And Tom, why is that, though? Because I believe you've identified, particularly the millennial generation and maybe every generation that's followed millennials as having this different outlook that maybe previous generations didn't. Is it the parents? Is it the schools?

Is it something else in our culture that is directing them toward this happiness? Well, I have to say that I guess the baby boomers, which I'm a member of, I think we went after success and wealth. And then we kind of spoiled our kids, I think, in general. And then they grew up spoiled. And then they're spoiling their kids. And then you got the school infiltration. And then you have tech and all the nonsense that you get out of that. And really, you know, you feel sorry for kids that are getting drawn into the social media.

media thing because it's such a negative influence on them because you see all these perfect people out there and then you start thinking, well, I'm not perfect. And then you start feeling like you're not good enough. And so many kids feel it. They're not pretty enough. They're not thin enough. They're not perfect enough. And their ears are too big or whatever.

And so they're getting all that nonsense just on their phones. And they're spending way too much time on their phones instead of. face-to-face talking. And so I think there's a lot of trends there, but I think they've come together and created a generation that is really lost. Yeah, well, that's why I think it's so important for people to take to heart what you're writing about here. Passion is another topic that you cover in the book.

You are very humble, and when you are talking about the number of hours that somebody has to work in, I mean, you yourself, where I believe from our previous conversations and other interviews I've listened, you were regularly putting in 80 hours a week in your job to be successful. So why is it that talent and hard work and persistence are the key to success? There's some magical things that happen. The first one I'll say is personal character. And there's a quote in there that says, if you have integrity, nothing else matters. And if you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.

So if you build a reputation for integrity through just doing the right thing, That reputation follows you around. And, you know, in the book I talk about all these opportunities that came to me because of people I'd known in the past that knew me, that liked me, that respected me, and that then offered me opportunities. Had I not impressed them or made friends with them, opportunities wouldn't have come my way, but I built a large bank of friends and advocates, if you will. And then the hard work, what people think about hard work is they go, ooh, that's hard. But what happens when you work hard is you build your resilience, first of all, because you tackle – I say, you know, doing hard things is you create resistance, and it's not easy. And then you keep pushing through that, and by the time you push through it, you've built your resilience. Okay, so you're not afraid of hard work anymore, but that's resilience.

And that's what's really missing a lot in this generation. And then with the resilience and the hard work comes the self-esteem. You're prouder of yourself. You feel better about yourself. And it's the same way with helping other people. When you help other people, you feel good. You know, if you help an old lady across the street, you know, she thanks you, but you feel better than she does because you just did something good. And you know it was good.

You know what was right. So doing these kinds of things and, you know, helps build your self-esteem. and hard work is builds your resilience and your self-esteem. And those are two things that are missing in this generation as a generality. And part of it is because they're being discouraged to work. You know, they're saying, you know, I don't want to work that hard. I'll lose my happiness. That's so true.

And I think it has serious implications for what the future of this country is going to look like, particularly when they are in a position of leadership. And how then do they advise? the people who are working for them or what does it mean for the future of entrepreneurship in our country? So a whole number of potential challenges there. Tom, you illustrate your advice in a pyramid form in the book. I want to talk about those three levels of the pyramid, what goes into each one, and how to build on the others. The first level of the pyramid is the foundation of success. So goal setting, personal character, self-awareness, hard work, helping others. Let's start there before we get to the second.

Yeah, well, I think, you know, as a home builder, I know that the foundation is so important. And if you have a bad foundation, you cannot have a good house. I mean, a bad foundation is kind of permanent, and it ruins a house and it can ruin a life. You know, a serious breach of character can ruin your life. So you have to worry first about your foundation, and your foundation will be. keep you secure through hardships, you know, so you have to have that solid foundation. And your family is part of that foundation, which I didn't really talk about. But it's really, you know, what holds you together?

But these traits are foundational, you know, the personal character, these, they're discipline, really. And then the second tier is really what I call reaching your potential. And that's, you see a lot of really talented people. I've known, I told a story in the book about a guy I knew that went to Harvard and was a White House fellow and all these honors and high IQ and all that. But he burned out in his, in his 30s or 40s because he just didn't really have the, he didn't take risk. And so when I go into the reaching your potential, you have to take risk. You have to make good decisions. You know, nobody talks about how important good decisions are in your life.

You know, good decisions is really more important than talent. You know, if you have talent and high IQ and all that, but you make bad decisions, you know, your life is not going to go that well. So taking risk, a lot of people are afraid of risk. That's another thing that young adults or millennials are being told to be safe out there. I went through a fast food place a few months ago and these kids in the window instead of saying thank you, they say, be safe out there. You know, I mean, so like, what do I have to worry about, you know? So there's this fear of taking risk, you know, but risk is necessary for reward. And so entrepreneurs, successful people, take risk.

And then the other traits in that category are what? Talent, decision making, risk taking, drive, and execution. Yeah, well, talent is a big one. And what I say is forget your passion, find your talent. because passion, I think, if you have children, you know, comes at the end. You know, when I started my home building company, I wasn't passionate about building houses, but 25 years later I was. And the day our children were born, you know, I didn't know them, but 20 years later,

I had suffered so much. You know, passion comes from the word pathos, which means suffering. And, you know, kind of like the passion of Christ. And so once you suffer through something, you then have passed. passion for it. But passion doesn't come at the beginning. It comes at the end. Hard work comes at the beginning, you know. That's right. And then the top of the pyramid, life's greatest achievement, success, purpose, meaning, wisdom, and happiness. Well, you know, I've always kind of enjoyed those subjects and I've, you know, learned a lot from Dennis Prager on some of those subjects. But, you know,

purpose, you know, it's funny, a lot of high school kids are being told or in college kids to find their purpose. Well, you know, I don't think you can find your purpose when you're in college. You know, I found my purpose when I was in my 60s. It never really hit me, you know, that, you know, but I ask, and, you know, I'm a spiritual fellow, but, you know, why did God give me the skills he gave me? Why did he put me through the experiences that I've been put through, the good and the bad? Why did he, what was he preparing me for, you know? That's, that's my purpose. It's really not my purpose at all. It's his purpose for me. That's how I feel about it. So, so you can't find your purpose. I mean, you know, when you're, when you're 22, I think you have to kind of live it out.

And it comes at the end. So when you're 22 and you're in college, don't worry about your purpose. Find your talent. I mean, find out work on that. Find out what you're naturally good at with little or no effort and work on getting better because that's your gift. That's your, and we all all, it takes some of us longer than others, and some people never find their talent. They might be in the wrong job. And so one of the parts of reaching your potential is changing jobs to make sure you don't get stuck in a job that doesn't really use your best talent. And we all have talents.

They're just different. I encourage so many things that I want to follow up on there. But just a couple of points. Number one, the importance of taking risks and entrepreneurs, obviously not everyone's built to be one, but it's so critically important to be in a position where individuals do take those risks. And when, you know, they sometimes feel challenging and outside of your comfort zone, you know, it's still something that I would personally encourage people to take a look at.

The second thing you said, you talked about making decisions. And you also have a section of the book where you talk about some of the steps and questions you should ask yourself when it comes to making important decisions, particularly about life, not just day-to-day decisions so much. Walk us through some of those aspects, I think particularly for maybe our younger listeners who are struggling with maybe the direction that they want to go in their life. What are some of the things that they should be thinking about? Well, I think one of the harder decisions to make is changing jobs.

And that is very hard. I acknowledge that. And I've done it five times. But so you're in a job. You've been there three years. You're 28 years old. You know, I like to say year one, you love your job. Year two, you like your job.

You're three, you're starting to see some things you don't like. So let's say you think it's time to move, but you're afraid your boss is going to find out you're looking for a job and it'll fire you. So you kind of sneak around and then you just postpone it and postpone it. And then now next thing you know you've been there 10 years and you're 36 years old and the clock's ticking. You know, you can move when you're in your 20s and even in your 30s, I think. But once you get into your 40s, you need to be. in the right industry and really you need to have found your talent and be using it. So making that, that's a tough decision.

I understand that. But there's a way to go through that. And you can't make a decision until you have options. You know, you can't sit there and say, well, I'm having trouble making a decision about a new job. Well, what are your options? You know, you can quit now and just go find one. That's option A. you can call a friend or call somebody or start doing, you know, there's alternatives you can start

doing right now. But making those decisions are, those are tough decisions, but that's the kind of decision. And they're also risky. They're risky. But right there is, you know, it needs to happen if you're going to, if you're really going to develop and manage your career. You know, I talk about the difference between jobs and careers. A job is anything.

It could be anybody doing anything. That's a job. A career is a series of jobs that build value in the individual and turn into something meaningful and valuable. And that's what you want to create. And so, but I think the important thing is choosing the right industry because bouncing from one industry to another, you kind of start over, you know, because there's a lot of industry knowledge that you need to learn.

So I got on the right target, I think, when I picked. the real estate industry right out of grad school. And I stayed in that industry, although I did a lot of different things in that industry with different companies. Yeah. And you sometimes encountered challenges along the way and failures along the way. I mean, there are things that I think we're so afraid sometimes to confront those failures or don't want to take the risk because of the chance that we might not succeed,

that it paralyzes us. So I appreciate you giving our listeners that encouragement. By the way, Tom, I neglected to do so earlier, but I really encourage people to go to solidgroundbook.com where they can order a copy and find some other great information on the website there. A couple other questions that I have for you. You mentioned family earlier. I think that that's one of the things that as a father myself with three young kids, you know, it's a struggle balancing a busy work life, particularly in the communications field where it's, you know, a 24-7 operation. There's news always happening and finding that time to devote to your family. What's your advice on that and how did you manage it in your own situation?

Well, I rarely missed a dinner at home. Family dinners were very important to us and we, you know, I was always there for dinner. I usually worked late. I started early. I might work until 6 o'clock or something. But I was always there for dinner. And I had a great wife. I have a great wife and she took care of the home and the kids during the day.

Also got very involved with my kids in their sporting activities and in their school. all that. So I was engaged with them, you know, coaching them in Little League Sports till they were about 12 or 13. And that was a lot of good memories. And then taking family trips. You know, I think, you know, making memories with your family, you know, that my mother used to talk about when she was a kid back in 1928, I think. Her father took the family to the Chicago World Fair. And she never forgot that. And so that kind of made an impression on me. You know, you need to make memories. with your family. You know, take trips, do things with them.

And I think trips is a big thing because kids remember that. So we did a lot of family trips. We did, I think 25 years in a row. We did family vacations every summer. It was just automatic. And we'd plan where to go and we'd go somewhere for a week. And it was just, you know, so those kinds of things. But you have to stay engaged.

But when they turn 13, Rob, they get, it gets harder. Oh, I know. Because their friends become number one and their parents. parents become last. That's right. Well, in my case, I think that's great advice. And I try to spend every weekend pick a day to take the two older boys golfing since the pandemic. They haven't done baseball.

I was passionate about baseball when I thought I was going to be a professional baseball player when I was probably 10 years old. I realized that that was, I should not follow my passion. I should follow what I can work hard at and succeed at. But, no, I think that time that you spend with your kids is so important. And I think particularly because we have come out of the pandemic in a situation where parents are obviously looking at, you know, having more control over their kids' education and just, you know, more say in the various things than some of that means pulling them out of public schools and putting them in homeschools or, you know, whatever that situation might be for them personally.

I have a comment there on raising children. And I think there's really two ways to raise children. There's two schools of thought. One is to make them happy. And the other one is to make them strong. And I really think that too many families try to make their kids happy. They try to please them. You know, what would you like for dinner, dear?

You know, I mean, and then just giving them everything to try to make them happy. And that really spoils them and makes them unhappy. And I think what kids really want is discipline. They want to know their boundaries. And it should be king, dad, queen mom. And if anything, kids should make their parents happy. But you need to make your kids strong. And the way you make them strong, and I think we did this with our boys,

is we made them work at age-appropriate things. We made them earn what they get. You know, one time one of our sons asked me if he could get a new bike, and I said, well, you just got a bike for Christmas six months ago. And he goes, yeah, but I'm tired of it. I said, okay, I'll pay half, you pay half. He goes, never mind. I didn't want it that much.

Amazing when you get that kind of response. But you can make your kids work. You know, make them earn what they get. And then that's a life lesson that helps make them strong because you want your kids to be strong so they can handle things. And the problem with our generation right now are a lot of them is that they're not strong. They're weak. And they've been spoiled. And they've never built that resilience.

They've never been forced to work. Yeah. I think you're spot on with that analysis. Tom, one final question for you. You have a list of recommended books and inspiring quotes at the end of Solid Ground. How did you compile these? And why was it important to include them? Well, I just thought, I've been influenced by all those books, you know, and the Bible was number one.

Dale Carnegie's book, I read that, as a man thinketh by James Lane Allen. That was the first success book I ever read, and it was about 20 pages long, as a man thinketh. You know, and everything starts in the mind. So those books really influenced me as I was growing. up and then Stephen Covey's and the whole list of books in there. I've read a lot of those books and I just wanted to put a list of books. Happiness is a serious problem. I read that book and became happier just because I understood that I was making myself unhappy

with silly little things, you know, like looking for what's wrong versus what's right, you know. So you get a lot smarter when you read books and you certainly do. I strongly encourage. I know that that's a challenge in our busy work. world, but it's so important to find the time to do that. Yeah. And then the quotes, you know, I tried to make the book inspirational.

And the quotes are all that. I mean, there's just, there's something about a quote that just kind of has a ring to it that you'll remember the ones that really, you know, resonate with you. And so I think there's 200 quotes in the book, and they're all inspirational. They are. They're great. Well, Tom, you are inspirational. So thank you for writing the book.

We'll be sure to include a link to it in the transcript and the show. and the show notes for this podcast. We appreciate you telling us your story and sharing the advice with us. I think that this is for those parents out there who are looking for a way to not only become better parents, but maybe motivate their kids to succeed in life. This is an outstanding read. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Rob.

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Very exciting day. It's been an exciting past week from the Supreme Court. But thank you to all of our listeners when you write in and send us your letters to the editor. We love reading your feedback. So if you have never done so, you can express your views, share what you like, things you want to see from the Daily Signal by writing letters at daily signal.com. As conservatives, sometimes it feels like we're constantly on defense against bad ideas. Bad philosophy, revisionist history, junk science. and divisive politics. But here's something I've come to understand. When faced with bad ideas, it's not enough to just defend. If we want to save this country, then it's time to go on offense. Conservative principles are ideas that work, individual responsibility, strong local communities, and belief in the American dream.

As a former college professor and current president of the Heritage Foundation, my life's mission is to learn, educate, and take action. My podcast, The Kevin Roberts Show, is my podcast, opportunity to share that journey with you. I'll be diving into the critical issues that plague our nation, having deep conversations with high-profile guests, some of whom may surprise you. And I want to ensure freedom for the next generation. Find the Kevin Roberts Show wherever you get your podcast. Bernadette, thank you so much for being back with us today. It's always good to kick off the week with a little bit of good news. So what do you have for us today? Thanks, Virginia. This one is actually

coming from the Commonwealth of Virginia following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roeby-Wade pregnancy resource centers have all eyes on them as more women and their babies are in need. One Virginia pregnancy center, Mary Shelter, has been open for 16 years with multiple homes for mothers and their children. In addition to housing and pregnancy resources, Mary Shelter offers parenting training and employing opportunities. Shante Mallory, a mother who has been helped by Mary Shelter, tells CBS News how she at first decided to have an abortion because she felt like she did not have any option. It wasn't what I wanted to do. It was just at the moment, it was That's what everybody was telling me to do.

So I feel like that was really my only option. But after coming across the support of Mary Stelter, she changed her mind. It changed my life. It changed your life. It gave me a new start. I didn't have to give up or get rid of a child that I knew I wanted. Just because things got hard, I didn't have a support system. Shante is now a mother of five beautiful girls and is studying theology in Bible College

and is a peer recovery coach. I'm in Bible College studying for theology. I also am a peer recovery coach, so I help those that are about. with addictions, traumas from like sexual abuse or just past traumas. Logan Wilkins is another mother helped by the home. She was pregnant and sleeping behind a dumpster. I was literally sleeping behind a dumpster eight months pregnant. After spending some time in Mary's shelter, this mother is preparing to be on her own again,

this time with a career in the medical field. I just got a new job in the career field that I want to be in the medical field. What are you doing? I am a scheduler, but I'm getting my medical billing and coding certification in four months. I should be done in October. Mary Shelter has hosted over 300 women and their children and has turned not one mother away, says the founder Kathleen Wilson. We turn no one away because we know that their situation at that moment is just that desperate.

These mothers want other expecting mothers to know there is hope, abortion is not the only option, and to look for ministries like Mary Shelter for help. Bernadette, thank you so much for sharing that. Our former colleague, Mary Margaret Olahan, did some reporting on Mary's Shelter a little while ago, And it's especially critical at this moment in history, I think, to be talking about what are these practical solutions, the ways that women can be helped and to highlight some of these awesome organizations that for years have been doing the practical work of the pro-life movement. So thank you so much for sharing. All right. Well, we are going to leave it there for today.

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