I Like Giving! - Part 2

Well, hello, friends. One more time. It's stories from the road. I'm Dick Foth, and I'm back with my friend Brad Formsman to talk about the heart of loving, which is giving. And we pick up our conversation as we're moving along understanding why we are able, why we should, why we can, how it works, all of those things. Here we go. So, I'm fascinated. Brad, first of all, you have a podcast called The Wow Effect, and The Wow Means Words of Wisdom. Words of Wisdom, and you essentially talk to people who have by almost any metric achieved. They tend to be corporate leaders and so forth. Where did you come up with that idea? Oh, I mean, there are thousands of podcasts we all, you know, we get that. But yeah, so after the last election, it would have been November of 2019, my son came in and said, hey, we, we should start a podcast. And he's, he's a pretty sharp kid. But the wee language was a little off. But he said, we should call it The Wow Factor. You know, we're moving around the country. We're meeting all these great leaders. And all I'm picking up on the media is businesses bad. And it's all about corporate greed. And yet we're meeting radically generous families on the weekly. I said, no, I don't want to do that. And he said, no, we'll call it The Wow Factor. And I said, I don't really have time. He said, well, I already ordered the equipment. It's coming tomorrow. So, uh, we weren't sure we were going to get past that. He used your credit card, that 149 swipe. Yeah, he had, he had a, uh, he had a, he had access. But I'll tell you, he, he's a future thinker. He saw something. And what for us right away, it was about promoting if that's the right word, the heart and life story of the different ways people can give and serve and live and their life and in their business. But we weren't sure we were going to get past episode 10. In fact, I think I'm episode 11 when he interviewed me because we're just trying to buy a week. And so that's going to take 260 something. Yeah. But, but these are folks like the, let's see, oh, Southwest Airlines. But, uh, there's also you and that's, you know, oh, that was a big grandfatherly voice. I'm sitting here going, we're going to do another one of those because we're going to do fourth part two. Um, but you know what, I, I kind of look at the podcast. And I think maybe you do this a little bit too. Somebody said to me one time, I don't know if I understand your podcast. Is it Christian? Is it business? Is it leadership? Is it, I said, it's art. It's a tapestry of people I like or people I'm intrigued by. My friend Martin Dingman, he makes amazing belts and puts a scripture without the verse inside of these great belts. And I thought, I want to hear why he's doing that. Yeah. What drives him? Uh, you know, maybe I'll have a leading pastor rarely on. Sure. Yeah. But, you know, uh, because there's something about how they function and that I think would be fun. Um, sometimes it's a new author. Sometimes it's a real small little business guy. Yeah. You did a couple with our friend Admiral Clark, who used to lead the Navy. Those were pretty strong if I can use that language. I mean, good. So let's go back to the seven ways. Right. You shared a friendship. We'd call that generous influence. Okay. So now it's on me. I get to go to Arizona and interview this stately admiral who he opens his mouth and I hit the record button thinking we were going to do one episode and it just kept going. And the goodness was so good. I'm like, this has got to be a two-parter. Yeah. And what was really fun about that is he goes to CCV, which is a major church in Arizona. And the pastor didn't know that he had a admiral, a serious admiral. And you would say CMO, right? CMO. Chief and naval operations from 2000 to 2005. Second only in tenure to Arleigh Burke, who's sort of the iconic admiral in the US Navy. And so what I did was I told his pastor, I said, I really want to encourage you to come over to where we're recording at your church, because I was speaking there for the staff. And just sit on an interview. There's somebody intriguing from your church that you're going to, they had never met. Sure. And Ashley Waldridge, the pastor, he's got, are you kidding me right now? You know, this guy employed 850,000 people maybe or under his command. I think maybe he knows something about leadership. That's a bit. Thank you again for that. What a, what a, what a podcast that made my eyes leak, especially that 911 conversation and where he was. And I loved how he was so certain. And how, you know, he called the one guy who was doing the switchboard. And the guy wasn't quite getting it. And he said, hey, we're under attack. You're talking about 911. Yes. Yes. We're under attack. I think you should call this person. And we'll worry about the protocol later. Yeah. And he was, I'm guessing this 800 feet maybe that just around the corner from where the plane hit the Pentagon. He was on the South East side. Yeah. Just right there. You know, it's fun and talking to Vern. Admiral Clark is that there are two sort of themes that land in many conversations. And, and one is the Lord numbers our days. And the other is that he charts our ways. And I was talking to him one day about maps. I said, just so in the in the map or of your life. And he said, deck in the Navy. It's not maps. It's charts. Yeah. There are no roads out there in the middle of the Pacific or in the bearing sea. But there are charts for where things are and so forth. I just, I'm intrigued by the fact that generationally, first of all, your son is, you know, how old is your 23? 23. 23. But he started hanging with you when you went on the road. 15. Yeah. 15. Because I remember him being with you when you spoke I'm sitting here thinking, you know, it has to be grandpa the bread guy that when you were a kid, how old were you again? 10. 10 when you were 10. He took you with him and did his generosity, his generous thing. It seems to me that as you've approached, so how do we, how do we get the spirit of generosity, the heart of generosity into young hearts, malleable, touchable hearts. And so you have now created a curriculum for any school. It can be any school. It could be a public school, charter school, could be a private school. Correct. We're really focused on the charter and the Christian school right now. Okay. However, in the Philippines, the Christian programming works wonderful in their public schools. So the approach to that is what in in terms of these are teaching the seven things or the 38 feelings or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Well, important to know when my grandpa passed away, I found a little document that he wrote when I was 11 years old. I didn't get it until after. And it said, dear Bradley, Winston Churchill said, you make a living by what you get, but a life by what you give. I thought this would be well worth remembering. Love grams. And I think if you're a grandparent parent, whatever you think, ah, handwriting, I can just text, there's something about do that. Even if they get it later, send a little note, you know, I think we've lost that. And it means something. I keep every hand written note that I get. And you know, because of our relationship with Southwest Airlines, I have gotten multiple handwritten notes from their CEO, I promise you, he's busy. But he took the time to say, Hey, your kids books are helping touch the life of my grandkids that are seven and nine and giving me some language and values to talk about. So, so when I fly Southwest Airways, I can go on the movie section on the screen and go to the family part or the, yeah, it's very easy. When you go to the Southwest portal, which is free, you just go to TV series. And underneath that, there's a little section. It's right there called Southwest Content and you get this picture, Generous Kids Book Club. So to your question about the programming in the schools, we realized that when you teach kids before the age of 12, especially between nine and 12, they move from concrete to abstract learning. And generosity is kind of an abstract concept. What do you mean I'm going to give something and get something back? Well, how does this all, you know, what? It's good for me. Well, it makes me less anxious. What's going on? And but the power in that is that's also when a child is establishing their morals and values and worldview of things. So while I've spent a lot of my life talking and teaching older people who already have the resources, this research blew us away that what if we could teach the younger ones to your question? So we started a program that said, let's teach gratitude at the beginning of every lesson, right? A grateful heart is a great place to start. So we have these kids all across the nation, all over the Philippines, taken one minute a day to think about what they're grateful for and they can't do carryover. So we teach them a little math along the way. If you're grateful for food, family, and friends yesterday, let's find new. There's so much to be grateful for. And then we begin to bring scripture in and apply it with with the one of the seven ways. And then they get to go experience it with their peers in their class. And then they get to tell on each other in a good sort of way. Hey, I saw Dick helping Susanna with his friend Tommy, she fell off the merry go round and Susanna doesn't know Tommy, but because Dick and Tommy are friends, Tommy, we need to help her. And on the way in, we heard Dick saying Susanna, you're going to be okay. We're going to get to the nurses station. And you know what? The teacher tells that story or here's about it from one of the kids. And then she just gets to ask the class, hey, which of the seven ways did we see in that story? Oh, we heard generous words. You're going to make it. You're going to be okay. Hey, share to friend. That's influence. What else? Hey, time. Okay, who else has got a story? And what we're learning is even the scoundrels, they kind of like how good it feels inside in that warm feeling inside. And I don't want to miss this in those lower grades, kindergarten through two. We realized we needed some stories that would rhyme and it would create a way for carpet time for teachers to read to the kids. And so Drew came to me one day and he said, we got to, we got to do more, we got to do kids books. I'm like, how are we going to do that? But what had already been put into motion is your daughter and my friend Susanna said to me after Drew came to me with this thought. She said, you know, in fourth grade, I think I got, I think I prayed that I could write kids books. I said, well, when were you going to tell me this little secret? I said, Drew's over here trying to figure out when so we put a team together and now we have the generous kids book club. And we're fighting hard to teach values that last. And most of the time it's fun, but it's challenging. We have Jasper G, the first generosity draft and we're, we're finding that we've created a language connected with a scripture in the back. For example, Jasper G and the me thinking madness is book number one. And so right away there's the story of, yes, I got to read that out loud. You've read it out loud and you did great. And here's the story of a grandpa and a grandson draft. And they get into this moment where they have to look at, am I being a big-hearted giver or a meat thinker? Well, now parents later on long after the book's been closed can say, hey, you know, Johnny, are you being a meat thinker or a big-hearted, what do you think you're, I'm being a meat thinker. Do you really want to be like Jasper? No, he didn't have any friends. And of course that all points back to then, you know, what where's God in this? It's a fascinating thing. When you try to teach generosity, we have a friend. Barb Melby now retired from teaching preschoolers. And about four years ago, maybe five, I asked if I could go do a podcast with her preschoolers, four year olds, essentially, mostly four. And so I went to her place, sat in the school where she was and I sat down on the little chairs. And so I asked the question, what do you, this one of my favorite stories, what do you like best about Christmas? And in chorus, there were about eight or nine of them. They said, presents, I said, that's fun, isn't it? I said, do you really like getting presents? Yes, we like getting presents. And it was, they had each brought a present to school to give to somebody else. And Barb said, this was probably the first time that they had been asked to give some, they used to getting presents as to give something. It was interesting because they could just go pick one out when their name was called. And some of them were small and some of them were in big bags. And I thought that they would go for the big bags. But we were getting down to the end and several, the big bags were left. And I asked her later and she said, well, you know, between themselves, they figured out who their, what, what gift their friend brought, the friend they knew, even though it wasn't for them. That's what they did. But anyway, I said, I said to them this thing, because I'm trying to get into the generosity thing. I said, well, isn't it, isn't it great to be able to, to give a present and not just get a present in two or three of the little ones intimidated by the big guys? Yes. And one little kid said, no way. I think we may have even reprised that once or twice on our, on our podcast. Just because I mean, it's, you was telling the truth, you know, that I really like the receiving end of this thing. So I love, I love on the wow factor. I always ask what's your wow? And somebody said one time, you got to start to start. And I think that's my encouragement for whoever was listening today. You know, you pick up these seven words, seven ways and you start to start. I, I miss all the time. I mean, I would never want to sit here and advertise that I get it right all the time. But I will say this, it affects your heart. It, I can spin out of a bad mood so fast, even over just a cup of coffee or, or, or a kind word. And, you know, you mix gratitude into that. And it's like, it's going to be okay. Well, you know, I travel enough to know that there's lots of reasons to get grumpy or there's lots of things in life. And I just think that the generous life is the better life. Well, we're sitting here in my house having this conversation. And this would be a good time to take opportunity to thank you, but also to thank Richard Flores who's sitting over here to my left and you're right recording this. Now, Richard has been doing this for six, well, I don't have her many years a long time, a bunch of years. And today he came and we haven't had any snow here, essentially, for, for this winter. Until just today, we might have gotten a dusting the other day. So, three, four inches, depending on where you were. And Richard comes to my door in, in the indicators to me that he just got to work out because he shoveled my driveway. It's not a narrow driveway. He just shoveled my driveway. And I'm thinking, well, boy, that's going to cost me. No, I didn't think that at all. I just, what a kind, what a kind thing to be able to do. And I can, you know, I try desperately not to call them on weekends, but I do not try hard enough. Because I don't, it's probably, I could probably call them three out of four weekends. I just got this question, or can you do this? And he's always been very generous and kind in that way. And ever since I've known you, you've been kind, you have given me things and time and encouragement and resources and you, you helped, essentially, with the production, with the funding for this, this little audiobook that came out with recently. And I just want to thank you to however many people are listening. This may be, this may be 13 people in Southern California and a grandmother from Minnesota, but whoever you are, I just want you to know that in a real sense, far more than put as money or as mouth is. But more than that, I just think that the attitude that you bring to the enterprise, whatever it is, is in and of itself a gift. Even when you're in hard times, or in all of us have those, still that idea about how do I look to the other? Really comes through. Years ago, we were in Mexico. We took it, we took it. We were taking, we might have took it. We taken about 30 university students from University of Illinois to Mexico. And we were in a very poor town and in a, in a young pastor there, well, can you own us? And as a young man, been sentenced to, I think was 19 years in prison in San Quentin for a variety of things. Long story short, he ends up being thrown out of the country after 11 years or something. And he comes to faith. His mother had been praying for him all these years. He comes to faith. But he was in this little town and his spirit was such. You know, he would, he would say things like, you never know when you're going to be the answer to somebody's prayers, stuff like that, right? And he told us the story about a person who was sick that heard about somebody else who was sick and went to pray for them. And in that process of going to pray for them, he himself found healing. That whole river of giving that you're talking about just is this, is this basis for, for all the other good things that happen. Yeah. Amen. By the way, your illustrious producer, Richard here, he has, his kind eyes, doesn't he? You look at him and you're just like he, he's, he's just, you can tell he's a giver. That's right. He was over there. Oh, he didn't want the attention. But I think he had fun giving that driveway shovel. Well, I, I hope so. I had fun. Did you see that? Yeah, he just put a thumb up. So yeah, the things you don't catch when you're not videoing. Brad, thanks a million for taking the time to be with us on this podcast. We, we might need to do this again. It was an honor. I loved the invitation when it came through. And I'm so thankful for our friendship. I, I, I think I should close by saying you were very generous with your time when we first got introduced. I could take you to my back patio and ate a Michigan looking over Amway. It's several miles away. We had a brief call and you said, where do we go from here? And I said, I don't know. And you said, well, I have an idea. Why don't you come out to Denver International Airport? I'll pick you up and we'll spend a day together and see what happens. And I, I said, or I'm going to Denver. And she said, why? And I said to see what happens. And I think that was the beginning of our friendship. I, I showed up wet behind the ears, you know, starting a ministry and we just talked. And so thank you for that day. And subsequent times that we've been together. I have a picture of you standing on top of Hafton with Mark Batterson. You went out and hiked with him, right? I did. I have a confession to make. I, I hiked Hafton with my father when I was 16. And up at the top and we had a little lunch and, you know, it can be frightening. I mean, you're walking up the last bit, you know, hanging onto cables and stepping on two by fours that they've bolted into the, but I do have a confession to make because they had a little lake. It's no longer there. It's called Mirror Lake that would mirror Hafton down. And I had a, I had a hard boiled egg. And I just heaved it over the side to be able to say that I threw a hard boiled egg into it. And, and that's probably not the best way to end this podcast to talk about that, that I, I'm just, I'm giving up my secrets now. You know, I'm picturing it. And I remember that picture. And I would do a lot for Mark Batterson, but I won't be going on any more of his adventures that about. I literally thought I was going to die. I went with my son, Dan, and he was younger and his legs were shorter and he got up and down fine. But I didn't conserve water and we were using the filter thing, but I was drinking out of the stream. I was getting delirious. I wasn't sure I was coming all the way down. So I said, Batterson, I love you, but your adventures are a little, a little out there for me, buddy. You renamed him Shackleton. Guy who got stuck in the ice. Thanks a million, Brad, for being with us. God bless. Thanks for all you have done and continue to do and encourage in other people. It's a, it's a wonderful, wonderful thing. Thank you. Well, that's it for today, friends. What a wonderful chat with our friend, Brad. I pray I hope that you will have a wonderful Valentine's weekend that those that you love dearly will know that from you, as you give of your time, your talent, your treasure, your attention, all of those things that have been chatted about the last couple of podcasts. Thank you again for listening. Thanks for subscribing. And for those of you who have reached out to pick up the book, stories I love to tell that's on audible on Amazon as they say down in Australia. Good on you. Hope you enjoy those stories and your hearts are uplifted by them. That's it for now. This is Dick Foth grateful on this day for the privilege of being able to think about giving plan on giving and doing it. That's it for now. God bless. Bye bye.