Miss Liz Serves for Podcasthon with Luke Mickelson Sleep In Heavenly Peace

I'm over here have a moment with me. My name is Miss Lizzie. I don't ever smoke the dizzy.

But we can always share some dizzies. It's just a cup in time. This song doesn't have to run.

Like all of us not every moment we can be feeling fine.

I want to share a moment just a second if you will. Maybe even a cup of thrill. We could share this performance.

It's tea time comes in with me.

Welcome, guys. Miss Lizzie in the house and today is a special tea time. We are hosting for podcasts thrown. If you haven't heard about them, check them out.

I'm going to pop up their website during this broadcast. I have Luke Michelson in the house and we're going to be digging a little deeper into sleep and sleep in heavenly peace.

And we're going to talk about kids that don't have beds and all that good stuff and how we can help and how the listeners can help and maybe open up a chapter in your community.

Donate. Let's see what doors we can open up today with this bonus tea time.

So let's get started with the disclaimer and then another intro for Luke and then we're going to get Luke in here. We're going to spill a good strong cup of tea and today's tea is the kids. That's right. We are serving these kids.

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Tea time by Miss Lizzie serving truth and awareness one cup at a time.

Well, today is a bonus tea time with Miss Liz. This week from March 14 to the 28 over 2800 podcasts around the world are coming together through the podcast home movement.

We are letting charity close to their hearts and using their voice to create impact.

Today, I am honored to bring you not only a powerful cause, but also returning guests who we continue to make a difference in communities everywhere.

Joining us once again is Luke Michelson, founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a movement built no one simple, but powerful mission, no kid sleeps on the floor in my town.

Luke back for a second time as a reminder that this conversation does not end because the need is still there across neighborhood cities and countries.

Children are going to bed without a proper place to sleep and through sleep in Heavenly Peace volunteers are stepping into into change that building beds delivery hope and restoring dignity one child at a time.

This tea time is about awareness. It is about compassion and action. It is about recognizing that even the smallest acts can change a life.

So grab your cup and lean in. Today's conversation is not just about listening. It's about becoming part of the change.

And then we get Luke in here and let's spill some tea. Welcome Luke.

Hey, Miss Liz. Good to see you again.

It is an honor to have you back Luke. So Luke, let's just dive in a little bit on sharing what you shared on the first tea time and then we'll get into the second bonus tea time here.

That's quite that's quite the mouthful by the way. Well done.

I work hard on these guys.

No, thanks for having me. You know, this is great to be back on, you know, and I hope your listeners enjoyed the first episode, you know, to talk a little bit about how shp where it came from.

You know, the inspiration behind it and from this crazy Idaho kid.

Farming you from I don't build and building something that was just a passion that he stumbled into and.

You know, and that's that's the beauty of I think most nonprofits right they in fact was on with the late, the great not the late but the great micro who.

He said, you know, isn't it funny that a lot of great businesses and nonprofit starting to garage right and.

And I love that it isn't that really what the entrepreneurial spirit and it is about right is.

Ordinary people make an extraordinary differences and you know I can't emphasize ordinary.

With this guy here and I certainly think it's extraordinary but that you know that's what I love about being on podcast you know and helping people realize that this and then.

The farm kid from Idaho can do it anybody anybody can do it and make a change.

Well, if we have a question in here that just came in is what inspired you to start this incredible machine look.

Great question you know there's a lot of things that that brought up to this or came up to this point in my life I was 35.

You know kind of going through what some people might call like a midlife crisis for me.

I think it was I just got to a point in my age and in my maturity and whatnot that I really started asking myself the tough questions you know.

And this is the hardest thing in life honestly and I think it's where you can find real true joy is when you learn how to be honest with yourself right when you really.

Are like what does bother me why does that bother me what is this about you know when you start answering those asking yourself those questions man there's a lot of things that.

Pop up right you know what what is it do I believe right that threw me in a little bit of a.

What do you call it a faith crisis right and you know what is the purpose here then what is my purpose and all these things start.

It was starting to to weigh on me you know and when you don't have the answers which I'm one of those guys that I can't stand not having the answer right.

And put you can put you in some dark places right and so in the middle of this dark place.

I stumbled upon a family that didn't have any beds for their kids right and you know and not only did it hit me really hard because I thought of my own kids it really.

And I thought about you know providing an activity for my my youth boy scouts you know all those put together just filled my build my internal bucket right especially when I start watching.

The boy scouts help me build the first bed and then the second bed when I have my kids and I and we built that second bed you know those were the those were the shining moments that that I felt my whole in my soul or heart.

Just start to feel you know and and I'll start coming together especially when we start doing more and more and building more and more of this you know child bedlessness business was was being unearthed and uncovered.

It was it was something that was bringing passion and purpose in my life and when that when those two things collide man there's just about nothing that stops you know I share I think I shared in the previous episode you know when you when I delivered that first bed.

You know I'm a farm kid from Idaho that loves hunting and fishing and being outdoors and college football and Saturdays and all this stuff right I love that and I loved it for 35 years it was part of my my character my nature right.

But when you find your passion especially when you've been you felt like you've been without in the snap of finger it all changed you know building beds for kids then was a passion I didn't know I had I didn't know how deep and rooted and.

And a port was to be personally and I've never I've never doubted or looked back since.

Well that's really amazing and you know that's why I wanted to back because I had so many charities that I could pick from from over 600 interviews and I was like you know what this is one topic we do not talk enough about is kids with offense and right away I was like nope i'm bringing look back like I was just like you know.

But there are so many amazing organizations that I have had on t time check those out as well.

But I wanted to bring the awareness to the beds you know as a mom thinking of a child without a bed you know it broke my heart and having you come and share the first time i'm going to be sharing the double shows today so free people will see the first show and today show.

But we have a question here for you look and it is how can people from other countries get involved.

Oh great question you know when we when we kind of blew up right what happened was in 2018 we we started obviously building beds throughout the years and more the more we built the more people found out about us.

The more kids we found out about the more people wanted to help it was just awesome right and we were growing steadily we started actually.

From about 2016 to 2018 we had grown to seven or eight chapters from you know people we knew and people we didn't know from across the country which was which was great well in 2018 there's this guy named Mike row who was he did the dirty jobs.

The series of people people usually know him by that you know really cool guy and he he was doing a series called returning the favor on Facebook watch you got to look it up on Facebook.

There's a hundred episodes right and we're actually number one episode not in leadership but in what he wanted to do in that show which was show someone doing good and hopefully inspire others to do better right and to do something and that's what we did right we went from seven chapters to 440 now you know.

But what that also did what that show did besides he shows up he surprises yeah he gives you something that you need we needed a warehouse he gave us that which was awesome but what it really did for us was give us the megaphone.

That we needed to share this message to everybody that didn't know about it so we were viewed by 10 million people all across across the world right well we went from that like I said you know seven chapters to 440 chapters you know hundreds and hundreds of thousands of.

The kids and volunteers been helped since then mostly started from that one that one show from that a lot of people across seas and other countries found out about it we actually had eight or 10 chapter requests people that want to start chapters in their own country one of those being Canada you know and so we really we focused in on Canada we've never expand we hadn't expanded to another country at that point.

And so we did and we yeah we we bruised our knee a few times doing that trying to figure out how to start a nonprofit another country I think we're we're much better now we we've had to kind of pull back and and even though Canada's going great you know we there's so much steel so much need here in the United States we we only cover 28% geographically the United States which is really small.

So we're working on that we have actually an operating goal and annual operating plan that has a strategic goal in there of reaching 40% this year which is a huge audacious goal but we're going to try right and as far as other countries you know my vision my goal is we reach other countries we just need to find that one person.

That is going to take some time because it will take some time and some effort to get this going I mean we know the program I know how to run it I know what's successful it's really just an easy platform if we can bring we can find that one person that country that's willing to take on the charge and start a charity and we can work with you and we can we've got all the tools right there's no reason why we can't help kids in other countries.

Absolutely we have a question here about the volunteers we talked about this on the first episode let's talk about the volunteers how many volunteers are currently involved world right to great question you know we we actually really started tracking volunteers in about 2022 right I'm we did we but it was there said we were still pretty young organization I'm I'm building this plane as I'm flying it right you know so a lot of spreadsheets and word documents are hidden in the abyss of the world right.

But now you know we track it pretty we track it very clearly now we we've had well over a half a million volunteers in the last six or seven years I think just last year we had almost 600,000 volunteer hours and that was just in one year you know so typically the way it breaks down as we have when we have a chapter there's usually a chapter president and about 10 other what we call core team members.

On average right some some chapters only have five and some chapters have 50 right but on average we have about 10 or 15 core team members and when you put on a bill the average bill is about 20 to 30 beds with about 50 or 60 volunteers right and we do thousands of that bed builds a year.

You know and and so it compounds I think it's bigger bigger and bigger every year we have another question here what was the most what was the most emotional moment in your journey Luke.

Wow great question there's been a lot of them for a lot of different reasons that one of them I'll give you one of one of the more memorable situations was and I teach a lot of chapter presents listen your inventory your bed inventory is going to go quick because there's so many kids out there.

But make sure you keep two or three beds on an emergency.

Stature because I got a call this is many years ago but I got a call from.

From an agency casa which helps transitioning foster care kids into you know right homes and stuff like that well there was a family.

That had two kids seven or eight if I recall really young kids brother and sister the parents were gone I don't know what happened to the parents the grandparents lived too far they'll back ease too far they couldn't take the kids so these kids entered the system well they found a great foster care family home for them but they only have one bed.

And when they talk to the judge the judge said listen the kids have to have their own bed he gave him 24 hours to get a bed what that does right.

Or what when you look at that now now you've got two kids right brother and sister the only people they know and trust in their entire lives which is themselves you know together are about to be split up simply because they don't have a bed.

Well we had a bit we had a bed in the house 12 hours away right so that's just one of those things when you really think about it and what that provided for not just the kids to but the foster care family wanted they couldn't afford more beds they're expensive right.

So it really does keep families together you know and and that's that's a pretty emotional part but my favorite emotional part is is obviously my Haley story which is the first bed I delivered you know Haley being a girl six years old that had never slept on a bed I mean six years old not one bed right and when I delivered her first bed and to see that child hug and then kiss the bed for the first time I mean.

I mean it just melted me you know and then you look up at a single mom that's who her mom was single mom.

Crying you know tears going down her cheek and I knew every single one of those tears what they meant because I was raised by a single mom too right and that's when I realized yeah this is way more than just a bed is way more than just a good night sleep.

So did I lose you for a second.

Am I there you got me I got you.

Sorry I paused.

He took a breath.

So you know I can talk all day about great experiences and great opportunities and I will say this listen you know I can share and talk and show videos of pictures and stuff all day long about building and delivering beds especially delivering beds.

To a child but until you're in the room physically there you don't get to feel the weight and the emotion.

And then this sure joy that these kids feel when they get their bed you know because when you think about when you look at it really closely.

You know when a kid doesn't have a bed there's a lot of things a lot of things that they miss out on could miss out on are affected by.

And it's not just a bad night sleep right I mean these kids on an emotional front can't have sleepovers they get one friends coming their homes are embarrassed by it you know the parents are embarrassed as well right they don't know so no friends come over so they go to their friends is house and they do not only got beds but they got throw pillows and.

You know stop the animals and all sorts of stuff right you know what kind of message does that have on those children that that don't have that you know you got to worry about that and then.

In fact I just did a post today on my social media.

About you know I knew a friend of mine came up to me and he says you know Luke it's interesting you call it SHP because you know sleep it on the piece he says because me and my sister grew up in a really rough home.

And when it got bad you know my little sister said can we go to our secret hiding place our SHP and you know what it was their bed and doesn't that make sense you know.

This is don't don't you and I want to have a bad day or.

I'm going to go to bed.

Yeah I suppose you're sick I mean unfortunately my wife is under the weather right now where did she crawl into the same place we all want to crawl into it's our bed and just totally shut out the world right and.

Unfortunately these kids don't have that recharge they don't have that sanctuary like you and I do.

Well look we have a question here about the chapters let me get it.

Right here how can someone started chapter in their community.

Oh Michael thank you for your question this is really where the rubber meets the road for me anyways right you know there if you don't have a chapter in your area you know and you don't have a way to volunteer and this is something that really strikes a core with you.

You can go to our website SHBbeds.ca or SHBbeds.org and there's a tab there this has started chapter now the way we do it in Canada is a little bit different than the United States.

But but the outcomes the same we're or first initially want you to understand what does it take to be a chapter present right what goes into that and I'll give you kind of the steps right so when you when you click on that button it's going to ask you to fill out a little bit of information right your name number email basically right.

And then it's going to send you a webinar it's a pre-recorded webinar I think it's still me I'm not sure but you know it's someone talking about SHP and what it is and thanks for doing all this we just want you to know kind of a 50,000 foot view of what you're what you may be getting into.

And then after that if you steal Gungho and want to do it then we actually you'll get a call from from our training support lead and talk with them about you know tell me a little about where you're at what what's your what's your goals here what's your thoughts.

And if you still want to move forward after that phone call then we invite you to what we call a chapter support lead meeting or webinar a chapter support lead we have the countries split up in different regions.

Different regions are different what we call yeah regions rather and these chapter support leads are over a certain region and you know it's a it's a call strictly for those that are interested in starting a chapter.

So this is where you'll actually be able to talk face to face with maybe other people interested in starting a chapter you'll obviously talk to you know the chapter support lead there your main contact and ask any question you want after that you know then we have you fill out an application.

And that application is really more just to get to know you there's no right or wrong answers right it's just to get to know you and for you to get to know even a little bit more about what it takes to be a chapter president.

And then after all of that you're still Gungho which I hope you are then we schedule a time for you to fly to Salt Lake City we have we do trainings once a quarter.

And in those trainings it's it's a it's a weekend training where we we not just talk about how you build beds and all that stuff that's the easy part you know so you out there that I don't have any woodworking experience trust me that's that's the easy part right the other part is just how do you run a chapter right you know we we put on.

We put on for trainings a year we put on about in fact this this coming training in April is the biggest training we've had in a long time we're going to have almost 30 new chapters in one training we haven't seen that for like seven eight years and so from that you know we teach them all the ins and outs and all the things that they do mostly reporting issue because we have to report to our agencies but.

But after that really chapter presidents just focus in on three things raising money building beds and delivering beds that's it that's the easy part all the other administration garbage that we have to go through and owning and running a nonprofit the organization takes care of that for you.

I like I like that because you take all the stress away from everybody you know all the stress stuff right yeah exactly the idea is is we want the barrier to entry right there's a business term.

To be as simple as possible right and because built we know building beds once you get it it's piece of cake right the challenge it does take a little time a little organization right and it takes a community and if we don't have it set up properly which we do but if we don't have a set up properly then when the community shows up to help out you don't get their buy in because it's it's unorganized it's you know it just doesn't seem like it's it's put together.

It's put together right and you know the nonprofit's our responsibility make sure we do things transparently we were you know we're ethical and and people can trust us because when we when we get a dollar we value that dollar very greatly when we have a volunteer show up to volunteer we want them to have a great experience because that is where real change happens is when the community jumps in and decides you know what like I did 14 years ago no kid is going to sleep on the floor in my town right.

That's the kind of spirit and passion that we hope to find in volunteers in chapter presents.

Well and it kind of goes to this question that just came in at this viewer just tuned in so what inspired the very first bed built back in 2012 which we shared a little bit on on the first tea time and you just shared a little bit but sure again for people that are just tuning in now look.

You know it's a great question you know when when and I'll put it simply when I heard about a child sleep among the floor right I know I internally I was going through some some introspection inter I can't remember the word so just thinking about internally who I was right introspection right is that the word anyways.

It escapes me right now but besides all that when I heard about children sleeping on the floor I it just hit me really strongly because I thought about my own kids right now I had three kids on my own and and what would it be like as a dad with kids sleep on the floor mom but certainly for them what what is it like to sleep on the floor day in and day out right and then the second thing that came in is how easy it would be to solve that problem right I can do that.

I know how to I know how to work wood and and use a saw and a drill so I have no excuse not to help out I guess that's just my thought process right and and when I finally dove in to do it with the boy scouts at first we built that first bed and and then they delivered it they told me how amazing it was and I didn't go on the delivery so I didn't really get to see the fruits of our of our or the spoils right but what I wanted what I did see

was the boy scouts having a fulfilling feeling like you know being understanding and seeing and feeling the joy of serving other people as well as appreciating the thing they they that they had like a bed so I wanted that for my own kids and that's really the kickoff of sleep and empty peace was it really didn't have much to do the second bed anyways didn't have anything to do with hey I know of a kid I'm going to get a bed for because I didn't I had solved the problem right

this was more about providing something a dad moment to teach my kids something and which then of course turned into oh my gosh child bedlessness is a real thing and it is everywhere and no one's doing anything about it well that's got to change you know absolutely it has to change and that's why you're here again for the second time

so look what kind of beds are you building are they all bump beds are they single beds what type of

questions you know when I first started this I didn't even know what I was necessarily do I'm going to have a plan right by I knew the first family that

we were delivered to had I believe it was three kids I know at least two man it's been almost 20 years ago so I remember but you know I know they had we built a

bunk bed because it was two at least two kids and most of the time Miss Liz most of these situations that we go into they're you

know they're simple simple means small rooms not a lot of not a lot of space to work with right and so we started out doing

bunk beds luckily enough you know the only bunk bed that I knew was the dog my daughter's bunk bed and it of course could be split up

into used to be a full bed and then a twin bed is what her bunk bed was I didn't want to do that I knew I had to make the

process of building it simple I had it because I'm a simple guy and you know I didn't want to make it complicated

mostly because I had 12 year old boy scouts coming over helping me build it they got to make it pretty easy right and so

so we built bunk beds but I basically all I did you can see a headboard behind me that's that's what a headboard looks like right there

well that's nice and simple it's simple yeah that is a top headboard because you can kind of see let's see if I can get my finger

right there that little screw right there is for the safety rail well if you take the same headboard and just turn it upside down

that's the bottom bed so all I did was build the same headboard and then flip it upside down and add one more

screw hole so the process of building it is super simple that's why in some of these big builds that we do

missleys we can build a single bed in 12 and a half seconds wow look at that guys 12 and a half seconds

isn't that crazy you know I went on your website and I found out some of the numbers and some of the numbers are really scary

beds needed now 140,000 118 beds needed now so how can we get these beds made how can people support

yeah and that's you know and that number fluctuates almost on a daily basis right you know we have 400 chapters

about 388 or so that are active but you know these chapters they accept applications coming into them

through whatever zip code is entered in for the application there's a lot of applications we get that aren't part of that 140,000

those that's 140,000 that we can get to that doesn't include the other however many thousands that we don't even know

about well not only that that we we can't get to we don't have a zip code of a chapter for that yet

right so and yes let alone you know you're right 140 plus thousand right now is you and I are talking

right yeah but we still only cover 28% so there's still 70% of the country in the United States they don't even know about us

and it's even worse in Canada right and so we don't they don't even know about us so if 100 at 140,000 that's only 28%

you can imagine what that number looks like right and so and the only way I knew Liz a long time ago

the only way we're going to reach that 140,000 is not going to be from one single kid farm kid from either right

this has to be solved by the people in the communities right that's how they're going to find us that's how we're going to find them

and that's how we're going to solve this problem and so we just built an easy platform you know

franchise quote quote if you will but a platform where another farm kid from some country or whatever some county

can jump in and actually solve the problem for for the kids locally

well we have some more questions here about volunteer what skills are needed to be a volunteer

great question absolutely nothing

Paul the deal

you know hey but 12-year-old scout can do it holy crap anybody can

what one of my one of my favorite pictures is it a bill actually is a four-year-old kid

sanding a board right right next to a hundred and four-year-old man right it was kind of cool a whole century difference

and we like that I like that picture because it shows it you don't need it's not rocket science you don't need some big Harvard degree

or being what people call a successful business man no you just need a heart and you just need to have passion and want to help

because here's the thing that's why I tell is everybody I'm just a farm kid from Idaho because really that's all I am

right and when people see people on podcasts or TV or whatnot they put them on this pedestal and I think you know

especially if they're successful in business right good job you're you're great at what you did that's awesome right

but you know different than the next guy right we all believe red right we're all humans helping humans right

and so if I can to help people understand that listen if a farm kid from Idaho can do it anybody can do it you really can't right

you have to take action right everybody wants to change everybody wants to be better everybody wants to do good

you know even if it's internally deep down in there that's what we all want so why don't we right

right and and I actually do a lot of keynote speaking on this about following your tiny moments and things that nature because

we spend a lot of time too much time wanting to change right and that's good you need to have that don't give me wrong

but how much time are you spending on the next step which is the desire to act right we don't we don't

think about spending time on that right and really that's the most important part because if you don't act on it

and if you don't practice or try and work on that desire to act and you're just sitting here in this man I want to change

I wish I did that I've been in that stage I've been in that that loop right nothing happens from it it just loops and loops

and loops and you give or just talk right everyone just talking I want to change I want to change but you're not moving like walk

to talk and here's the thing they literally literally do right and you know it's probably easy for us to say gosh

buck up just get it done right go get this you know that's what we want to say that's what we tell ourselves right

and the problem is is why don't it's because we all can do it we all can the problem is and here's the answer

stop working on your desire to change you already know that at that basis covered right now work on your desire

to to act right whatever that is right for me sitting on the couch doom and gloom in the loop trying to

pet talk myself out blah blah blah it took my kids to wake me up and see this you know what my kids are not going

to appreciate the things they have they're not going to fill the joy of service if I don't get my bleep and you bleep off this

couch right now so my desire to act instantly skyrocket right and that's what it dawns on me I've spent no time

no time working on that desire I worked on wanting to change all day long right but I needed to work on my my

desire to act we talked about this of all the tears you said the dirtiest ones and the sweatiest sweatiest are the best

of all the tears but we have a question here for what advice would you give to a new volunteer week

well first of all thanks for showing up right and and the best advice and all you nonprofits out there listen this is this

is gold nuggets right here volunteers want an experience right and you as a as the leader or what not of the organization

or whatever it doesn't matter when you're working with volunteers you need to make the volunteer experience just as

important as your actual mission we provide bench for kids obviously that's important that's our mission

but we also provide a volunteer experience for the volunteer because why that's important if your

volunteer has a great experience and I'll talk about what that means but if they have a great experience guess

what they're going to do they're going to show up again they're going to tell their friends and bring their

friends they're going to talk about you to people or potential donors they're going to expand your mission

they're yourselves but I mean all of these things are going to come because they had a great experience

okay so what is a great experience for a volunteer right and I don't know if I shared my

Hank story with you the first time yeah you did the old guy that's right

for example of Hank taught me the lesson that listen and when you stop and think about it it's so true

we when we work hard at something right that's when you get the most out of it so why is

why is as nonprofits we try to make the the process easier for these volunteers

all we're doing is robbing them from the experience and the the fulfilling feelings that come from

hard work so you volunteers out there the advice I give you is dive in work hard

that's where real fulfillment starts to come in because guess why then you realize you are

actually making a huge difference you are changing not just someone's world you're changing your world

too right and that's yeah so Luke question here are there any upcoming global expansion plans

where we're trying right you know we still only covering 28% of the United

States and our AOP goals this year or to reach 38 or 40 whatever it was you know

that's a that's a hefty goal right so so we have a lot of work still to do here

and some of that reason wise because we we in the United States

we can stretch people's dollars a lot farther right we actually when you donate a

dollar to SHP we actually convert that to about a dollar 30 right because just because of

our buying power and deals and discounts and donations that we get right so we can

we can expand that dollar we don't have that same luxury in other countries

right we don't have and we don't really have the same time I mean I get

called almost daily about Africa and some of those other you know

third world countries that need they need a lot of a lot of help but

it's it has to take someone in that country that's willing to push and go hard you

know I go to Costa Rica now quite a bit and you know I'm looking into right now

what does it take to start something in Costa Rica right that there's there's

legal issues there's residents people there that need to be involved and and that's

great we know how to do it we just need to have someone to get the kick kick the

the car and the gear and start rolling with it and then we can help guide it

so we just need community leaders to step up right they want they want to try

something different they want to work with the community this is a good way to get

involved in the community and listen it let me clarify and I know what you mean

but I want to make sure I clarify we don't need community leaders we just need

someone you know I'm saying be a leader turn into a leader don't say that's what

I meant like be a leader in your community right yeah it doesn't have to be like

the mayor of the town or the city council you know or or nonprofit in the

community but just be that leader be that president step up and says you know what I

want to be the change in my community you know what's funny is what started a

company off I was going to say one of and this is just one example of many of

our chapter presidents he's a pretty big introvert and you don't think of an

introvert as a leader down but typically not right he's one of the better

chapter presidents we have because usually introverts are pretty humble they're

pretty you know to themselves but when he finds finds passion right he he takes

off of it you know he leads differently but he has a strong chapter because

it's it's not necessarily the leader that they're following right they're following

the mission and he puts the mission before anything which is what people want what

people want what people follow right that's why anybody can do this we really

sleeping on the piece doesn't build any beds we don't build beds we teach the

community and have them build the beds right and that's why no experience is

necessary a lot of times we have people that have never touched a drill before in

their lives I think that's why they like it right because they come in and they're

like I don't know how to use a saw or a sand or a drill and we're and by the end

of it four hours later they're skilled professionals right at least on how to

build a bed and and so it's a combination of what's going to you know what causes

and impacts it's going to have and then the process right you get to learn

something you get to physically put your hands on every piece of wood your

fingerprints are in every single bed that goes through that that line and

and eventually into a home for a child and that's a neat thing to have right yeah

absolutely and how much does it cost to make a bed again so in the United

States on average right wood and mattresses are obviously the biggest

expense of the bed but on average is $300 for a single bed for the whole

thing in the in Canada I think it's 450 if I recall but it's it's right around

there you know and we and we then that's everything delivery that helps run the

organization that's the whole nine yards right and in about 70% or close to

that I don't have the exact numbers with me but it's around there seventy

percent of our income our donations come from corporations that want to do

team building exercises so they pay the three hundred dollars for however many

beds they want to build they donate six thousand bucks we build twenty beds and

and off we go you know so it's just and it's a round number that we're not a

round number but it's a number of people can get a get their mind behind and

wrap their mind around you got to have a budget somewhere right and all you

non-profits listen that's another key gold nugget is make your program your

fundraiser so no one wants to I build beds for kids that's my passion I don't

have a passion for putting on galas or spaghetti feeds or anything right you

know that I'm not putting it on this is a funny story the very first

fundraiser we ever did right I mean this is like four years into this so it's

two thousand fifteen sixteen something like that it was a spaghetti feed and I

worked on that darn thing for a month and a half planning this getting this

blah blah blah getting the plate I mean anybody that's done that knows what I'm

talking about well at the end of the day I made thirty five hundred dollars

which was I mean cool don't give you wrong I kid you that the same week I

walked into a companies and I said you know this is what we do and so if you have an

activity coming up he's like sure enough we got like the company summer picnic

party and we need an activity house ten grand and I remember going I've been here

for an hour or less and I just made ten grand I mean but this is it you know

people don't I get it fundraising and that's and that's okay right that's part

of it but you know and I know I'm telling a fisherman to go fishing without a

fish and pull I get that but listen when the fish are ready to jump in your

boat don't don't cover your boat up right open it up right expand and that's where if

you're a nonprofit that can make your mission your fundraiser then that's what

you want to do anyways and your expenses are tied to your fundraiser which is your

mission and vice versa so if you don't build beds you don't expand you don't have

expenses right if you have expenses is because you're building beds and you got the

dollars and budgets for it it's pretty it's not rocket science other than it is

kind of hard for some nonprofits to try to find using their their their mission

and their program as as the fundraiser I get it but whatever percentage you can

do whether it's a hundred percent or two percent whatever percentage you can do

to have that come from your program you it's just a much better way to raise

raise funds. Well Luke let's get into national partners because you have

low as devolved flex power tools dokey foundation support workers actually

certal simps simps simpsons betting talk about how you got all of those

involved in great question in fact I just got off the meeting and I'm okay to say

this I just got the meeting with Ford Motor Company yesterday and there we're

going to be a big they're going to be a big sponsor they've already they've

already given us quite a bit of money and debts bills so it's been an

interesting learning experience you know I was an outside sales for 20 years and

and every business and every well every different type of business has its own

sell cycle right of how the sales goes and what what key things the a key on and

the actual the the people you talk to and and anyways so I didn't know how to

do that in the nonprofit space which is obviously a different business from

other nonprofits and so that sell cycle can be a little bit different so for a

while especially when I came out of the executive director rural and went in

just a founder and headed development there for a while this is what I was

tasked with well I found out something very interesting and this is another

gold nugget right corporations that they want to give back they really do but

they also obviously want something in return and that's not always recognition

right they want an experience for their volunteers so so what I found and

what I stubble on and use we have a program called the partnership funding

program and what it is is an organization that's nationwide like we are you

know they want they want their organization their employees especially and

especially the community they want them to know that they give back right they

have a corporate social responsibility every organization does and it's becoming

more and more required which I think is great for our world today and so they have

to go find this well too often do these national organizations they don't have

time and energy to try to find something that covers the whole country so what

do they do they just tell their individual offices go do whatever you know just

just make sure you have a project right well now you've got 200 or whatever

just 50 different locations all working on a different project right so what

message does that send to the employees and to the overall country right yeah

we work on stuff or we we give back which is great don't give me wrong that's

right but can you imagine if you could send the message to the country that

hey XYZ company and their 30 or 40 affiliates they all built you know 10,000

beds last year right instead of one location I don't know providing books for

the homeless or or food kitchens or what I mean whatever it is right no they have

one initiative right and they love that because everybody loves big numbers

everybody loves big impact reporting especially on a national level right it's

hard to get excited living in I don't know Missouri and hear about the affiliate

in San Diego California you know did this okay that's great good job right and

it's kind of unfair too because maybe this the San Diego office is three times

bigger than the Missouri office right so their impact looks way bigger why not

pool that all together and now collectively the whole organization has one

initiative it can report which I think is another huge mistake on nonprofits

who don't provide impact reporting you know clean and meaningful impact

reporting you know these are the things that nonprofits miss out on so to sum

up if you can provide and I would recommend providing an opportunity in

whatever way that you can to organizations on a regional or a national

level that you can pool your your initiative together into one and then

provide impact reporting to them in our case let's say Ford Motor Company

donates you know $150,000 or you know $500,000 to us we put that in a little

fun and it sits there until any one of their organizations or affiliates across

the country want to build beds then we just pull money from that right so that

money gets used for exactly what its purposes are to build beds but the

organization gets to use that to help their own employees be a part of it to

share the the initiative in not just the town we just built in but everywhere

and you know at the end of the day they get to say hey we just built 10,000

beds with all of our affiliates all over the country our initiative is we're

making sure no kids on the floor in our town you know it's just a bigger a

thing to get behind does that make sense absolutely you know and it's always

nice to bring in the acknowledgement of all these businesses that are

helping as well you know word of mouth was a long way you go to lobes and you

buy some wood and you're like oh wow did you hear about you know sleep in

heavenly peace they're making beds would you like to donate some wood like

you know extra wood that's left over on projects and that if they'd like

to donate that wood in that as well I'm going to bring up your logo so that we can

show people what if they see it on platforms and that they can reach out to

those community as well because you have many on Instagram that I I try to

tag as many as I could so let's get that out there for people to see it I'm

just going to take this comment also people and I think it's important to to

realize listen do corporations national corporations care about their brand

or at least they're a big knowledgement you know nationwide of this initiative

of course they do of course they do but I learned again another little gold nugget

here they don't care near as much about that about being recognized nationwide

because they're helping save the ocean or whatever it is right they care more

about what their employees think and how their employees can get a ball

because that's really the most important part to them is making sure that

their employees know this is a good company that they care about the

community they want you to care about it and be involved right that's what they

can at least control right is how they hear about it I look at lows lows is our

biggest sponsor and you know and what's funny right now when you go to

lows any low store in the country and you purchase something when you round

up it goes parts of that round up goes to SHP which is pretty cool but

what people don't understand that the money for that and their main initiative

is to provide service for their employees you know probably first I don't want

to speak for them but first and secondly obviously is to let everybody know

they're behind this initiative right and so don't don't think that if you come

in and you're going to you're going to share you know their logo on your

website and that's going to make all the difference trust me I went down that

and it's not near as attractive to them is what you think yeah yeah absolutely

well Luke let's talk about this logo here so if people see this logo they know

there's a chapter in that area and they can check on different platforms I know

Instagram has many of these logos because there are many chapters that are

in the United States but if anybody would like to know more about the logo

and how you came about the logo and when they see it what could they do

this is a great time can they run did I chapter

great you know the logo is kind of funny when I first built my first

beds I think if I recall it was my sister my little sister said you know

well we got to put something on the bed or with the bed so people know it

came from from SHP you know and at first I I didn't care right okay

whatever you know but it is nice to know what I wanted them to know is if

someone walked in and saw little Johnny's bed here they knew it came from

our organization so they knew there was an organization out there that provided

it right that was the main goal and so I said sure why not so my sister

who's kind of artsy Farty tight gal she made these cards that we wrapped

around like one of the posts of the bed and we knew they were going to last

about two days before they got ripped off but at least they got something

right well the next year we we scheduled our second build and and of course

at that time all my friends knew what I was doing and we were doing it again well

all of a sudden one of my old old high school buddies

both walks in he's a farmer and and and kind of a welder type guy well

he walks and he had this branding iron and on the branding iron had a big

S a small or excuse me a little less a big H and a small P and he's like

hey instead of these stupid you know things that get ripped off why don't we

just brand the beds and I'm like that's brilliant right so we started in fact

I've got that brand or here somewhere in my office so we started brand

in the brand in the beds well and it was just the letters well later on

when we got a little bit more organized and a little bit more market marketing

savvy you know we actually created this this logo and the funny thing is

is I wanted the logo the H to be a bunk bed I mean you got an H

you're missing a great opportunity to make that a bunk bed no one wanted that

which I thought was really weird I'm like why wouldn't she want that it's

perfect right well they're not going to get it doesn't look like an H

and I'm like trust me it looks like an H so that's the only thing I had I had

a fight for was the H had to be a freaking bunk bed because it made sense you know

it turned out really great you know and it started out with the brainstorm of

me and another buddy of mine his wife who was creative and we created this logo

and it's gone through some moderate changes here and there but yeah when the

point is is you know branding is obviously very important and we want we want

people when they look at that logo and this is important too when it comes to

mission creep and understanding what the organization organization does you want

people to look at that brand and have a tell a story right and and that and

that story needs to be clear when you look at sleeping Emily peace it's very

clear that we provide some sort of bed bedding something like that right you

know and so it tells a little bit of the story but ultimately we want people

to look at that and instantly know exactly what that brand means when you look

at the Nike logo you know what you get right it just you just you just know right

and we want that for sleeping Emily peace so it's a simple brand it's a little

bit childish but a little bit professional it's got a little bit of Christmas

hint to it but it doesn't I mean we're trying to cover all the bases the best

we could well the red bed spread in the polka dots is that is that the

bedding that goes on to the bed or is that just just it just the design that

came through and what's funny about that we had actually a chapter in Wisconsin a

little low lady just loved it so much she quilted a polka dot I mean it's

picture perfect to our logo it's the only one I know of that's ever been

done and they they wear that thing and they display that thing with pride

because it is pretty cool it looks just like our polka doted logo and they

run it through parades and all sorts of stuff so it's kind of fun wow cool so

Luke how can everyone get involved and where can they check out read out the

website and all that good stuff and any final messages that you have and then we're

going to wrap it up absolutely yeah s h p beds dot org or s h p beds dot c a

depending on what country you're in you know when you bring that website up right

what's going to happen is you're not going to see some big national

organization you will in Canada we haven't made that switch just yet but in

the United States it's not going to bring up some big national organization

it's going to bring up what's going on in your local community because that's

how this gets solved we want you to know how many kids are hurting in your own

community right you're going to see how many beds that that chapters bill you

can see how active they are and and and what not you're going to see how you

can donate and that donation goes to that chapter you can specify whatever

chapter you want right so that's that's cool if there's not a chapter you can

start one like I said and one of the most important things is if you know of

a child maybe your own or someone you know five states over or five

provinces over you can actually apply for a bed for that for that

child in in from that website right but the but the biggest ask oh yeah

absolutely it's a reference program where where you can you can put the

information down that you know of we'll contact the referral just to make

sure everything's fine and kind of get a little bit of story and then and

then we we can schedule delivery with the family after we contact them but

the biggest ask honestly loses look we can't solve problems we don't know

about right and this is a problem trust me no one knows about right there's

probably a lot of most of your audience right now had no idea that child

bedlessness was big bad and ugly as it is right the only way we're going to

solve that is if we get people to open their mouth share this podcast share

what you heard today find out for yourself go to the local school ask go

school counselor or first responder hey do you ever seen kids sleeping on the

floor you'll be blown away how many people there are you know it's 3% or not or

greater no question it's greater than 3% so if you live in a town a hundred

thousand people you know how many kids are sleeping on the floor and you'll

be surprised child bedlessness doesn't know doesn't know economics

necessarily it doesn't know race or religion or culture or geographic it

doesn't know any of that stuff it just knows hardship heartache troubled

times that's all it knows right and so it can happen anywhere whether

there's a there's a county in in the United States called Pinehurst South

Carolina it's such a town but pinehurst South Carolina it's one of the richest

counties in the country it's where all the PGA golf courses are rad all

this we got a chapter there you know so that doesn't tell you this is this

happens anywhere I don't know what does so yeah that's that's the biggest

ask is just if you can donate if you can be involved great you're gonna do

that for yourself I hope you need to get the get the film from that see what's

going on help out but if you can't do any of that you can do this we all can

open our mouths and share the story you know absolutely and that's why

we do these podcasts right and this is why I bring incredible guests like

you look on my platform because I want to bring awareness to things that we

do not know about that if you check out missles is tea times in the last seven

years you're going to see a lot of guests that have been on tea time that nobody

knew about their stories and amazing people and that's what we do on tea time is

we have a lot of incredible change major change makers like you look so I just

really want to thank you for joining me again for the second time and for all the

listeners out there I'm just going to do a quick wrap up and give you a little

bit of food for thought for all of you listeners out there but a powerful

meaningful conversation Luke thank you for returning to this table and

continuing to share your mission and your heart you remind us that impact is

not one time effort it is something we choose again and again this afternoon

we were reminded that something as simple as a bed can represent safety comfort

dignity and the ability for a child to rest and dream here is something to carry

when you leave after this tea time if a child in your community is sleeping on

the floor then there is something we can all do to change that you can share this

message and raise awareness you can donate to help build a delivery bed you can

volunteer your time and be part of the hands that make a difference or even

consider starting a chapter in your community becoming to change for children

who lead it most small actions create real impact until our next cup share keep

choosing kindness keep choosing awareness and keep showing up where it matters

most and thank you all for joining me on tea time I could not do this without all

of you guys so thank you and again thank you Luke for joining me on tea time

and being a guest and being a change maker that we need in today's world today

thanks for having me