47: Doing More Good (w/ Meredith Pericles)

Yeah, you’re on the Naaman Creative Show. Welcome back, people who are listening. We’ve got Meredith Pericles here, and I’m going to look at this, but she’s the founder and executive director of Do Good and Shine Brightly Foundation Inc. And they put on Do Good Day, among other things that I look forward to exploring, like what the future is and what you’re doing. But ultimately, I like to talk to people who are doing really cool things in the community, in the world. And clearly this is a pretty cool thing.

I’m about building community. This is, uh, so we’re in alignment and I just appreciate you taking the time to come on. I appreciate you taking the time to have me on. This is so exciting. You know, you set some goals sometimes, you’re like, I’m gonna go on a podcast, when is that ever gonna happen?

And then this happened. Well, here we are. And actually, you know what, this is the first podcast that I’ve recorded out of my new office here. Oh, you’re the first. I am honored to be recorded here.

Is amazing too, you know, with the whole history of The Edge that we have, both have. Yeah, yeah. So let’s start there because we’re in the Edge. Obviously that shaped what you’re up to. We’ve got Big John’s across the street.

We’ve got your involvement in Edge Insights and the Edge Business District Association.

Maybe you could bring me to what you- what got you involved in this Do Good Day? You know, this foundation that you’ve created, what’s the spark? Why are you doing this? Why am I doing it is to make a difference to this one. And so we’ll get to that.

But how it started here, I guess, and what the tie to the Edge is, is that my husband’s family owns one of the longest-running businesses here in the district, which is Big John’s, we mentioned. And I’ve been here through many different changes through the Edge. And so we’ve seen a lot happen. but we know some people from the district that we’ve known for a long time, one of which is Mark Ferguson. And I was not a big participant in networking groups, BNIs, MPIs, never was a part of that.

And heard about this Insights Club that Roger started as part of the EDGE, and it was more an informal gathering, but also some business education. So I started going and picked up all of these amazing insights from Roger, which you’ll probably hear me refer to throughout the interview, I always seem to reference him. And also had a really powerful conversation about how many nonprofits were blessed to have in our community, but how nobody knew how to get involved with what they were doing because everybody’s doing different things at different times and different places. And I thought, well, there’s a need right there. There needs to be one place where you can go and find out where you can volunteer.

In the whole county or the whole area, the whole state, whatever, however big this gets. And Do Good Day was born. That’s so cool. It’s so important too. It’s like, it’s sitting there in front of you kind of this whole time and the need is there.

It’s interesting because you actually just made me think about a project that I worked on with my master’s. I hadn’t even thought about this, but it was like a way to connect volunteers to nonprofits, and we built, we designed an app. So I have a whole, I have a whole, you know, business plan and idea plan, and there, there’s room for an app in there for sure. But yeah, it all just kind of started. And then I knew a bunch of nonprofits in town from different things.

Like I took a, I’m a water steward through this Florida UF program that they did, and I got to hear some executive directors from some water nonprofits come speak. So when I came up with this idea, I’m like, oh, I’ll just call the people who spoke in my class and I’ll just call up, you know, these other nonprofits that I’ve volunteered with since I’ve been here in Florida and see if they’re interested in being a part of this fair. And they were. Yeah. So first off, what’s a water steward?

Um, it is like a guardian of our waterways. So I took basically, you know, adjunct or when you audit classes for fun, uh, it was this program. and it’s run through the UF/ASIF Extension or whatever that agriculture extension thing is. And they teach it from Weedon Island Preserve. And you learn all about our waterway and our system and how to preserve it.

And all these speakers, they do all these panel discussions. So all these cool speakers come, hence how these nonprofit executive directors came one day. Uh-huh. And so you mentioned a fair. So it’s like a fair.

It’s like a fair. You want to break down what, what the event actually is? So the idea is a career fair, and you know, they have all the businesses come and they have tables, they set them up and they decorate them and they put all the swag out to attract you to their table. So that’s kind of what it is, but the nonprofits do that. So who knew that nonprofits have all these cool like tablecloths for their tables?

And Tampa Baywatch made this huge display with like their oyster habitats that they do. And Positive Impact brought this gorgeous food basket of food that they distribute, but she made it so beautiful. And so they all set up these booths and there were 38 nonprofits last year. So they made this circle. Yeah.

Uh, the first year there was 13. Last year there was 38. This year there’s going to be 50 plus. Cool. I’m key- I’m accepting all the way through the 21st.

So that’s why I’m not exactly sure how many they’ll turn out to be, but we’re close enough to 50 to say 50 plus. Wow. And you go right to the end, the edge, because that’s a week before the event. It’s on the 28th of March. It’s on the 28th of March at Ferg’s from 11 to 2.

And Mark Ferguson is so generous that he lets me set up the whole space. So it made a circle last year. So you could start at the beginning of Ferg’s right there at the front door. And it just makes a lap through the outdoor space. We don’t go through his indoor space, but through the outdoor space, all the tables are set up.

And you can basically walk a circle. This year it’s going to be a bigger circle because we have 50 nonprofits, but, um, it’s really exciting. They sell t-shirts and they sell, um, 3D-printed little animals, and then some people have just, you know, like a cardboard backdrop because this isn’t what they do. They’re usually, you know, helping do the missions. And so it’s a big gamut of everything, but nonprofits are small, so you get some executive directors out there.

So So if you come as the public or you come as yourself and you’re interacting, these are people you might not always get to one-on-one just chat with and spend time with and hear about their passion for the mission. And then the whole way you get in it is you have to have public-facing volunteer opportunities. Okay. That’s the only requirement. That’s the only requirement.

You’re a nonprofit? A nonprofit. Technically, it’s been serving this area. I haven’t had to like turn down anybody from Georgia that’s wanted to come. So I guess that’s like an unwritten rule.

Yeah, and the main rule is just you have to have volunteer opportunities that the public can hopefully that day sign up for, and then you contact them later on. So it’s that idea of you’re walking downtown and somebody comes up to you and they have this petition that they want you to sign to save the whales and let you just sign it, and then you go back about your day. You’re probably never going to contact them or follow up with them or see if that made a difference. But if you come somewhere specifically looking for a nonprofit to connect with, you’re gonna put down your name and number and then you’re gonna follow up and you’re actually gonna volunteer with those organizations. Sure.

Yeah. So hopefully it’s a closure rate situation. And after last year’s event, I was floored. I had 100% feedback say we all connected with at least one quality volunteer who followed up after the event. Wow.

And multiple nonprofits told me it was their best tabling event of the year. That’s enormous. It’s free. Free for nonprofits and free for the public. Free for the public to attend.

That’s just free. You can bring your pets because Mark loves pets. So, for example, pet friendly, pet friendly, family friendly, free to participate in, free to come to. That’s not free to sponsor if anybody wants to sponsor. Okay, that’s good to know.

And it’s important to know also that this episode, realistically, it’s not going to air before the 28th, but I’m glad to have got you in because you were just speaking about we need to be promoting this year round. And I think that’s brilliant because it’s a really great idea and obviously it can have energy all year round. I feel like one thing that I don’t know is said often or anything like this, but just the fact that it exists and that it happens reminds people that nonprofits are there. And keeps, you know, oh yeah, I was gonna hit up WestCare or Great X or whatever, and it’s around in their brain even if they don’t attend the event or see about it. It’s good for the community in general.

That’s the whole point, is to do good. Yeah. Oh, do good day and the whole foundation name. And the great thing about this, whenever it airs, is that we have evolved into this whole foundation that is doing other events that are strengthening the whole local nonprofit ecosystem. So everything I’m working on benefits multiple nonprofits.

It’s all connecting nonprofits, connecting volunteers to nonprofits, helping their infrastructure and their ecosystem. So it’s not like this is gonna raise money for Daystar. This is gonna- everybody’s out there tabling for themselves, but it’s increasing the visibility of all of them. To the community through the fair, also through the promotion of the fair. You know, social media is a big thing, and maybe you can’t come, but you see this and it says 50 nonprofits.

You go to the website, it shows you all the nonprofits that are there. All of them have volunteer opportunities. Your whole app idea, one day hopefully you can click right there and learn where you can go volunteer. Uh, but for now, you got to come out to Do Good Day or one of our other programs. That spawned from doing this event created this whole foundation because of all the things I learned during the event.

So you have Do Good Day. What are, what are some of those other events? We have Do Good Together, which is a nonprofit executive level connection event. The first one happened at Voodoo. The second one’s also going to happen at Voodoo.

Thanks, Bob. Voodoo Brewing. Voodoo Brewing Company. Yes. Cool.

Uh, the first one was January 24th, and we’ve already had enough response that people wanted another one that it’ll be back on May 16th. It’s invitation only with priority invitations go to the nonprofit executives who come to Do Good Day. But one of the things people told me was they loved connecting with the public, but there was no time for them to connect with each other. They got there, they were setting up their booths, they were interacting for 3 hours, they were done, they were ready to go home. So I thought, oh, What if we had an event where they could just connect that’s separate?

Because events are a big thing. You want to do a pre-event party, but then you’re expecting them to be there the next day too. So I just moved it completely to a different time of the year. We all got together. It was mainly just about connections and letting one nonprofit know what another one is doing.

So there’s 9,700 registered nonprofits in Pinellas County. What? Just in Pinellas County? And we only have 946,000 residents. Cheese.

So it’s a nonprofit per 100 people. So obviously there’s people that have overlapping services, overlapping populations, and the whole thought process is that one day you would be able to connect everybody and they would be able to find who they could work well with together and stop operating in silos ineffectively and operate together and affect bigger change. But you have to start bringing them together somehow. Yeah, absolutely. It has to be a hub like you saw.

You have to bring these coworkers together. You build the hub and they will come. So that’s kind of what the events are, that they’re not just events. They’re strengthening this whole nonprofit ecosystem. You get the executives together, they get to bond.

They get to realize that they’re not the only one out here doing this really hard work. There’s other people doing the hard work. Uh, we did a little social media strategy class, so they got a little bit of information. Some nonprofits, bless their hearts. Don’t really have the best, you know, websites.

So you are looking for that- you want to go volunteer somewhere and you go to their website and you can’t get any information from it. So we’re trying to show you ways you can do that yourself. But one of the future programs is like a Do Good Day for skilled workers. So we could match nonprofits with people who want to donate their time pro bono. Let’s say there’s a lawyer who wants to help a new nonprofit spend 3 hours going over their bylaws.

And the lawyer would have a booth? The lawyer would be donating 3 hours of their time, so the nonprofit would get 3 hours of legal advice for free. Mm-hmm, that’s great. It’s kind of another matching event, but I hope that there would be enough. Maybe there’s an accountant who wants to donate 4 hours of time to help a nonprofit do whatever they need.

Maybe they’re 990. That’s a way that, nonprofits can really get information out to about themselves through a tax document. So they don’t always know how to do that. Maybe somebody spends 4 hours doing that, makes a big difference to them when funders go see their 990. Yeah.

And all of that, like, ideas came from Do Good Day and getting all these nonprofits together and trying to communicate with them in setting up the event and coordinating event logistics and just seeing where there were gaps in the system. Yeah. Well, clearly there’s gaps all over in that space. You know, there’s so many organizations that are doing such great work, but they don’t have the legs for marketing to get the word out or the volunteers to get the word out for people to know about it. And so, you know, these kind of events are really important to project that good work and keep it, keep that momentum behind it.

Yes. So it’s grown every time I’ve done it. And I hope that going into next year that we’re getting so big that we’re out spilling into the parking lot or I don’t know, down Central Avenue or the side streets. Yeah. Ferg’s is big, but we’ve talked about how fun would it be.

So last year it was on the same day as Meso Market. This day, this year it’s a different day, but how fun would it be if Meso Market and Do Good Day ran into each other? Because we had so many nonprofits that it crept into their space. Oh, so, you know, there’s dreams, there’s, there’s no limit to how many can participate. Uh, the, the limiting factor has been people who responded to my emails.

I cold called tons of nonprofits and just said, I think, I mean, I researched them first. It’s a highly curated event, but if it was somewhere that had the volunteer opportunities, you know, I reached out and said, I think what you’re doing in the community is amazing. Here’s this event. I’d love for you to be a part of it. What do, what are the people who say no?

What is their feedback? Like, we just don’t have the resources to even do a day, or? Mainly- What’s the pushback, if you get any? There’s been very few nos, actually. And usually it is either we have a- so it’s March 28th, which is huge in fundraising season.

This is season. So there’s tons of galas and other fundraisers to compete with, and those are annual events as well.

Last year, CASA was able to partner with Protecting Paws for Life, and they did a booth together because it’s CASA’s huge event night and they just didn’t have the manpower to send people to sit for 3 or 4 hours over at Ferg’s when it was all hands on deck for their fundraiser. So that’s been the main thing is just we don’t have someone to send. Yeah, sure. Their resources, which it’s kind of ironic because they need, yeah. It’s like, just find someone for that.

How long is it? It’s a 5-hour event? No, 3. It’s 11 to 2. It’s only 3 hours.

What impact can 3 hours- obviously there’s setup and teardown, but in one day, you know, imagine the ripple. And this is year 3? This is technically year 2. This is the second time we’ve had it at Ferg, so it’s year 2. Moving forward, the mayor is proclaiming, has proclaimed, will be proclaiming the last Saturday in March as Do Good Day.

No way. Yes. So that’s going to happen at city council right before the event. But going forward, now you can always plan that Do Good Day is going to be the last Saturday in March. Last Saturday in March.

That’s really cool. So you got a day. Got a day. Do you have any thoughts of taking this out of St. Pete to Tampa or out of Florida or worldwide? I’ve definitely thought about it, but what makes this one so powerful is that I vetted all the nonprofits.

So when you come to the fair, I can say you are meeting nonprofit- there’s nobody who’s scamming. Like, all of these people are doing legitimate work in town. To do that in somewhere else, you would have to go there and kind of immerse yourself in their nonprofit culture or somehow remotely be able to verify that everybody was coming. I just- to put your stamp on it that these are all vetted. I’d have to figure out the model for how that works.

But of course, that’s a goal. You know, Do Good Day Orlando, Do Good Day Savannah. Absolutely. I mean, you take that model anywhere. Do Good Day Honolulu.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I personally volunteer to set up Do Good Day France, but, uh-huh. Yeah, sure. Just take it where you want to go to.

I mean, there’s, um, I’m thinking of the organization. It’s called Effective Altruism or something like that. And they do like an intense job of vetting nonprofits where your dollar goes the furthest. Like this dollar goes to buy- $0.90 of it gets a net here for mosquitoes. And it’s like that $0.10 is allocated in this way and it’s very granular.

So I don’t know, maybe you could partner up with somebody who’s done that kind of vetted work because eventually, no matter what, even if you honestly stay locally, like the way this is heading, you only- you’re only one person. Yes. You know, and I definitely have a team of volunteers, and, um, Alexis Escoviu is my, you know, vice president in charge of communications and crowd control and everything. She’s good at that. Shout out to you, Alexis, and Roger.

Um, didn’t give him- Roger, Roger Curlin. Yes. Uh, yeah. Yes. He, he’s definitely provided a lot of guidance through this process.

And, uh, sometimes I had ideas that were a little too big and he’s, you know, just wait on that one. And other ideas that maybe I was on the fence with, he’s like, no, run with that one. That one’s great. So I have a big support system. Um, but yes, it does come down to it is just me.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. So you’re the only official employee or per person within the organization? For now, it’s so new.

The whole nonprofit 501(c)(3) structure came about during the event last year, so it’s less than a year old. And for the past year, it was structured a little bit differently since we didn’t know it was going to be so- you never know how something’s going to be accepted. I thought it was a brilliant idea that so many people would be spoken to, and then it would grow and take off like wildfire. But you just never know if there’s a lot of other people who feel that way as well. So it was really good.

And then this past year there wasn’t a lot of development into it because it was more of a spur of the moment thing. So now moving forward for the second year, I feel like there’ll be a lot more structure. So an actual board, some other people brought on with official capacities to help and to do it throughout the year. Yeah. Okay.

So you don’t want it to just be that is Do Good Day, like the one fair, but then you have Do Good Together and these other supplemental. And there’s also Sprouts for Good, which is our children’s programming. It’s already up and running. It’s actually won an award from Tampa Bay Lightning and AdventHealth. Sprouts for Good.

Oh, wow. So that one is connecting kids to local nonprofits. So the reason that I’m all about nonprofits is my grandmother and grandfather volunteered. All right, I was wondering, where, where is this all coming from? My Nana was on the board of everything that you could be on the board of in Lexington, North Carolina.

So we grew up, you know, there were Halloween carnivals, and we made, uh, Christmas cards and took them to the nursing home, and we sang Christmas carols door-to-door in different neighborhoods, and, uh, she drove Meals on Wheels. And then to That was, you know, I’ll date myself, that was early ’80s. My mom to this day still drives for Meals on Wheels. Wow. That’s special.

It just created this lifelong service for me. And I feel like that would happen for a lot of children if you introduce them to nonprofits and what nonprofits locally are doing at a young age. So it almost creates a volunteer pipeline, which is just another level of this strengthening of the whole nonprofit ecosystem. Which is like what the whole foundation is about. And all these different events strengthen different parts of the infrastructure ecosystem in different ways.

Yeah, it’s really neat that you created a nonprofit that can, that can help other nonprofits. So you’re not just choosing like one, now you’re helping 50 kind of in one effort. Obviously it’s concerted efforts in, in lots of different right, categories. But overall, this effort is helping a lot more than just one nonprofit, which is enormous. And you had explained at the beginning of this that that’s like the whole goal, is that we’re not targeting one nonprofit specifically.

Yes, it’s, it’s everybody, you know. We all rise. Yeah, absolutely we do. Um, so North Carolina is where you’re from originally? Okay, where I’m from originally.

Um, I’ve been here since 1999. So, and did you get into the nonprofit realm then, or is, have, has this always been a part of, it’s always just a part of you, like professionally? No, it was never a part professionally. It was always just a part personally. I went on mission trips through high school, uh, through college.

I’ve been to Brazil, Belize, Mexico, all over the United States. We did all kinds of domestic work as well. So that’s just kind of what my family did on summer vacations. So that was the side though. It was never the job.

Uh, I was a pediatric cardiac ICU nurse for a while. Okay. Ah, so still serving, still serving, still taking care of people. Oh yes. Everything has always been some kind of service.

Definitely. I mean, I was literally in service industry in the restaurant industry for years. That’s how I put myself through nursing school and, you know, various other things. So it’s always been some form of service. And then when I stopped nursing, it was to have 4 children, which is, you know, nothing but surfing.

Um, nursing in a different way. Yeah, exactly. It all, but all these skill sets from whether it was service and hospitality or service and nursing really prepares you to be a parent. It’s kind of amazing training. And then all of those things have prepared me for how to deal with all these other things that have arisen with the nonprofit and how to triage problems.

And it just, uh, attention to detail. That’s, um, probably one of my strong suits and it comes from, you know, one decimal place is the difference between life and death in an ICU medication. So, you know, those things catch your eye quickly.

It’s all just helped come to this point. Yeah. It seems like, uh, like your path has been charted for setting you up for something like this and definitely in that realm.

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So can you bring us to like, where did this idea form? How did this come about? Can you tell the story about that? For Do Good Day? For the event?

Yeah, yeah. Like, where did- where was it birthed? After an Insights Club meeting. We were literally sitting around talking about how we’re so blessed to have so many nonprofits in the county, but that people didn’t know how to get involved in an easy way. And so they got dropped at that step.

Of I don’t know what they’re doing or when they’re doing it or where they’re doing it. And, you know, this whole phone culture has created- the easier something is, you know, they tell you you have to have so many clicks before you lose a sale. It’s kind of the same. If people have to hunt you down, they’re already trying to come volunteer. They’re not going to do that.

And so I thought, well, there’s just really a ball drop there of connecting the public to the nonprofits. So what’s fun to get them visible? Absolutely. A visibility fair. Oh yeah.

And so that’s essentially what it is. And being at Ferg’s just gives it this whole fun energy just from the location. And then we’re very blessed that we have Jay with Eat This Dessert First. Oh, Jay’s great. Who did a really great pitch.

Yeah, yeah, shout out to him. He’s a part of this community and he’s going to be set up there for our dessert food truck. Sweet. So he’ll be there, uh, with us that day. And then just 50 nonprofits and the whole Ferg’s atmosphere, which is just amazing in and of itself.

It’s just like a party. Oh, they just won like a worldwide award or something. Number one sports bar in the USA. Yeah, by USA Today. Yeah.

So I’ve been there a couple times and I’m like, this place is enormous. And then I walk outside and I go, there’s a stage back here. And it’s so funny because I’ve seen it grow since, you know, 1999. All right. And so it, it’s so funny to see just all the things that have changed, but also all the things that are the same.

Right. So it’s, it’s a very cool spot. Uh, Mark is a very giving person. He has always put community at the heart of a lot of what Ferg’s does. I’m sure that’s why they’re so successful.

Yeah. Oh, of course. That’s why you stick around. And also why he linked up with providing you the space. Yeah, like you had a relationship with Mark.

I mean, the shop is right there, so our families have known each other, but as far as like myself and Mark, there was no real relationship except for I’m part of the Pericles family, to say that for the introduction. But it was more I started pitching him the idea, and we were sitting at a table in one of the indoor rooms And within 5 minutes of starting this pitch that I thought was, you know, going to be this hard sell, I’m gonna have to convince him. He’s like, come on. And he takes off walking and he’s like, and you’re gonna put one here and you’re gonna put one here and you’re gonna put one here. And he’s like walking the whole restaurant and showing me, you can have this space and you can have this space over here.

And if you need to have the stage right here, you could, you know, have your speeches right here. And he was just so on board. And everything I asked, you know, can I have the- which unfortunately these aren’t happening this year, so So any, I guess it’s a good thing this is gonna be after the event, but we had a VW photo bus come and be a photo booth. Hey Mark, can I have this bus come and be a photo booth? Yes.

Hey Mark, can I have this goodness gracious, uh, ice cream truck come? Oh, those guys are great. Yeah. So everything I asked him, he was like, of course, sure. And the day of the event, we took pictures in the photo booth and he said, doing this again next year.

Right away. He wanted more. Same day of the event. Yeah. Like middle of the event.

That’s a great sign. So yeah, it was dependent on the Rays schedule, which all worked out because they play next weekend. Oh, perfect. The next weekend after the event. So it didn’t interfere with, with the event.

And so, yeah, it’s like it was meant to be. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It’s a really cool story and it just means a lot. Have you, I, what’s, what do you, what would you say is the biggest hurdle?

Because I mean, it seems like just so much is aligned, but you know, I love the funding. Funding. Yeah, uh, the first- so last year for the event, quiet came right on the heels of the hurricanes. And it’s crazy because I feel like people were very generous. People were so giving.

Got sponsorships from people I’d never expected to get sponsorships from, and easily. And this year it’s definitely been different, but the whole funding scene has changed. It’s changed federally. Uh, it’s changed locally because now people have been in that post-hurricane state for 18 months, which everybody is still very empathetic, but some of that giving isn’t there as much because now you’re just trying to survive 18 months later too. Sure.

Who’s an ideal sponsor or funder? Um, there would be all levels. So it would be great to have a title sponsor like a Raymond James or someone come in like that. Uh, it would be great to have a mid-level sponsor. You know, I think of places like Rollin’ Oats and other super local places, but places that care about- like, they curate what they put in their store, right?

So it’s kind of that same mentality. Yeah, Sands Market. Sands Market. Yes, yes. Anniko, she supported- we- she gave us, um, we had a lovely gift card for our raffle last year.

So lots of the local businesses do that. Uh, Invigorate does gorgeous basket. Grassroots Kava does a gorgeous basket. I could donate like a consultation. There you go.

Naming Creatives throwing his hat in there. Oh, for sure. Yeah, yeah. Don’t, don’t let me slip on that. Perfect.

Yeah, just hold me to that. Yeah, for sure. 100%. So we’re building that. And, you know, Heidi over at Daystar, uh, Homemaker Blush here, she’s, you know, like one of my role models.

I consider her like, I want to be like Heidi, you know, what she is to Daystar. And just the way that she makes things happen over there. So I went to Empty Bowls this past weekend, which, uh, the foundation is happy to sponsor. This is our second year that we’ve been able to be a sponsor of that event. Um, but she had this gorgeous silent auction and all of these wonderful prizes.

So Heidi, how do you get those? I go to them. I spend the whole year going and asking, and I thought, okay, Do Good Day’s got to start, you know, April 1st for next year. So I’m hoping to ramp up that part of it and have a whole- this year it’ll be small, there’ll be a table of raffle baskets, but in the future making that more similar to what they do. That’s a really nice silent auction.

Uh, hers you could even go online and build, bid. So that’s something to think about for the future. For, for last year and this year, it’s just been about getting a good mix of quality nonprofits to kind of appeal to all different- if you want to come save the Earth, if you want to come save children, if you want to come save seniors, if you want to come save veterans, animals. So just making sure that every category was represented, which of course I’m still limited by people who respond to me or who reach out to me. Hopefully this is going to start getting the word out to nonprofits as well to say, you know, I want to be involved.

Guaranteed. What do you think the most underrepresented realm is? Like, is it climate or is it children? You know, just- you know, I feel like that this last year it was veterans was hard to get. I don’t know that it meant that they were underrepresented versus it was hard to get someone to come represent them on that day, right?

Um, so there seems to be a lot of good representation, but that one was the one that I noticed last year. This year has just been a lot better. Uh, it’s been much more well-rounded. People who were on board from last year, you know, responded. So I didn’t start at such a deficit and have holes this year.

Cool. Oh, that’s great. I try to think that it’s well-rounded, but there’ll be a post-event survey, so, you know, the public can say, well, I was really looking for this and I didn’t find it. Um, I’m sure you’ll probably get some of those funny comments like, well, we thought there was going to be so-and-so included. You know, we thought you’d get free drinks at Ferg’s or whatever, but whatever gets people out there and interacting.

I like to say that the success of the event is how many people come. What’s the, what’s the average? Don’t have an average because we only had the, the one last year. Do you know how many people came last year? I do not.

I didn’t have a way to track. No idea. Uh, I know that Big Brothers Big Sisters said she filled 2 pages of signatures, so I would think, you know, 26 on a- that’s 52 people wrote down their name. If only 1 in 4 wrote down their name, that was 200 people. Yeah, that’s probably good math.

So I was hoping for around that. I’m hoping that this year there’ll be more. I’ve done more advertising for it. I guarantee it. Uh, Fergs picked up some social media posts, which helps because they have such a good reach, whereas Mine is still very small, so you can post on your own all day long, but you’re only reaching the people you already reach.

So it was really great that they’ve been able to kind of boost some things. Are these nonprofits also sharing? We’re gonna, we’re gonna have a booth there. That was part of what the Do Good Together- I said there was like an education section. Last year, our nonprofits that attended had a combined 1.4 million followers on Instagram.

And 500,000 on Facebook. So it doesn’t account for overlap. If they had all shared the post about Do Good Day, it would have reached that many people, but it kind of didn’t happen that way. So that’s what we talked about at Do Good Together back in January. And then when Fergs made their post, I sent an email to everybody.

Here’s the post, make sure you share it. And people did a great job. So some people made new posts, some people just shared it to their stories. So that way they’re all picking it up. And then yes, they’re supposed to do a post or two about, you know, we’re going to be at this cool event.

So hopefully you would pull all of their followers who are those like-minded service people. Sure. Yeah. If you’re following a nonprofit, there’s probably a reason. Oh yeah.

Yeah. It’s a different kind of crowd that you can activate from those, those crowds. And some of those big, you know, Keep Pinellas Beautiful, they, they’re a member, they are a member, they’re a Participant, they came last year and they’re coming this year. They have a great following, so that’s a- it’s great when they share because that gets in front of a bunch of people. Oh, definitely, who are into that kind of- into that kind of stuff.

I also did a Radio St. Pete show. Oh, great. And, uh, every time that I’ve been on, you know, Fox 13 or any of those shows, I’ve talked about that it was coming up. So that’s good. That’s great that you’re getting press and things like that, and I’m I’m glad that you came on here.

Yeah, it’s fun. Oh yeah. I mean, I like the podcast and the radio much better than TV. TV’s fun, but, uh, it’s not- I couldn’t do that every day. I could do this.

It’s a lot. Yeah. Got the Christmas lights and our drinks of choice. Sure thing. Oh yeah, absolutely.

Nobody can see, got the baseball hat on over here. Not yet. One day we’ll pop on the video component to this podcast. Actually, the next episode we’ll release was videoed in Belize. You had mentioned Belize, and so I was like, okay, I’ll release that one as a video because it was pretty cool.

Yeah, cool island. Yeah, there’s no bad scenery there, so no, it’s really great. Yeah. Uh, so the, the, the name Do Good and Shine Brightly. Yes.

So do good, that’s, that’s understood. What’s, what specifically, where did the shine brightly come from? What’s, what’s that component? The same with, you know, light and Let Your Light Shine and, um, we all shine a little brighter. Just that same thought process.

I, I knew it was gonna be something bigger than just the event, so I didn’t want it to be Do Good Day. Great. Great. And do good, there’s a lot, A, first on Sunbiz, of different things that are, you know, do good this, do good that. So it just kind of evolved through wordplay and thinking of the different programs cuz I already had some idea of different things.

I wanted to do. And so kind of trying to think about how would all of that fall under an umbrella. Yeah, I like that. So even though, because we were talking about, oh, it is, it’s, it’s a few words, but there’s a reason for it and it’s, it’s well thought out. So I agree, I agree now, now that I know the full picture of that.

So my Nana was an English teacher and I studied for the LSAT for fun and took it So words have special meaning. So it, it definitely was a well thought out, even though it’s a mouthful. And that’s why when I say jokingly, maybe I’ll do a DBA, I, I don’t know what I would do DBA the whole foundation of, because that’s encompassing all the different things that I’ve thought of that it might can do. Sure. And some of them are about these do good works and some of them are about helping others shine brightly or helping yourself shine brightly or helping us all shine more brightly.

Yeah. Yeah, well then don’t do a DBA. Just embrace that it is a mouthful. It is a little bit of a mouthful. So I’ve got to fix the first part of the email address then because, you know, director@do-good-shawn-brightley.org is quite the mouthful.

The domain name, yeah. Yeah, it’s quite long. You could probably find some acronyms available still. Yeah. Yeah.

Hmm. Now I totally get the naming. Thing. It’s first off, what’s available? Oh, that’s too general because it’s scooped up everywhere.

There’s, there’s a lot of dynamic to that. It’s like, I just want to get this going. Come on. Yes. So I also have a for-profit business and that one’s name just came to me.

So Write on Top of That, but it’s spelled W-R-I-T-E. So it’s copywriting for not, it’s basically for nonprofits. So grant writing, but other copywriting skills. But it’s from, uh, do you know the movie that it’s from? Did you get it?

Right on top of that. No. Right on top of that, Rose? I’m- that’s over my head. Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead was a great ’80s movie with Christina Applegate.

Oh, I was born in ’89. Yeah. So I guess- What’s the movie? Guess you missed it. It’s called Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.

Oh. And she- the long story short of it is her mom is out of town for the summer. They don’t have any money, so she fakes a resume and goes to work in this company. And her boss’s name is Rose, and she says to her, if I ever ask you anything and you don’t know the answer, you just say, I’m right on top of that, Rose. So there’s two different scenes in the movie where she says things to her, and Christina Applegate says, I’m right on top of that, Rose.

That’s great. So then when I was thinking of the name of the writing company, I was like, you know, you want people to know that you’re responsive and that you’re Right on top of that. That’s perfect. Oh my gosh. And change it to W-R-I-T-E. Yeah.

Oh, it’s, and that’s even your for-profit is fueling good stuff. I mean, ideally those grants that you’re helping them get awarded go to propelling good things. Yes. Neat. Yeah.

Boy. It’s kind of full circle, I guess. Yeah. Well, it certainly is. Well, I appreciate you telling the story.

Are you ready for a special segment to end it out. Maybe it’s called the rapid fire. Okay. All right. There’s just like- there’s sound effects and everything.

Super highly produced. Okay. All right. I feel the pressure. Yeah, I’m not good.

Oh yeah, yeah, points and everything. This is a whole different thing. Yeah, yeah. Uh, yeah, yeah, you can have this pop-pop. Oh nice.

Okay. All right. Oh, all right, let me get ready. Free pen. Uh, So, uh, the idea is try to keep it concise, but if you need to expand, all good.

Okay. All right. So we’re going to start. What is your biggest source of inspiration? Oh, my Nana.

All right. Boom. That was easy. Yep. I have a Nana too, by the way.

Oh, that’s- she’s my last living grandparent and I love her. And she was actually a guest on this podcast. Oh, fine. Yeah. And it spawned like, I need to.

I want to make a sector of the business for family podcasts called the Family Cast. Oh, cute. We’re still like getting that going, but I really feel like it’d be very neat to document the history before it goes away. I think that’d be amazing. As someone who’s, you know, getting older myself and has older parents and has lost all of my grandparents at this point now, I, you know, you see the beauty of wanting- what did she say about that?

And just being able to go listen to and hear her voice again. Yeah. You’re gonna get me to tear up over here, Josh. Oh boy. It’s not a good podcast if there’s no tears.

Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. I cried like 3, 4 times in that episode with my Nana, that’s for sure. Oh, I, yeah, I can’t, I can’t imagine.

I couldn’t. But it’s neat because we can look back and, and it, I was like, you know what? You’re gonna be in town. I really wish I could have done this with my other grandparents who mean so much to me and had so much to say before that they left this world. And, uh, so it was, it was really special.

So shout out to your your nana in mind. For sure. Around that. Oh, cool. I think it’s so special because, you know, your nana, like, knowing that she would be very proud of the work that you’re doing right now, it has to be very, very fulfilling.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So, uh, you’re plopped on an island.

This is a two-part question. Part one, you’re plopped on an island and one book can plop down from the sky and you’re left with that book reading it Forever. What’s that book? Okay, so you’ve been to Insights enough with me. You know, I don’t, I don’t do favorites.

I gotta do top 3. Um, but I would say The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Okay. Um, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey and Environment, Scarcity, and Violence by Andrew Price-Smith. Oh, that last one seemed a bit intriguing.

He was a professor at USF. When I studied, uh, in my previous life when I studied, uh, political science and environmentalism. And he was a political environmental teacher, like political activism, I guess, but in the environmental realm. And this was a book he wrote and it kind of changed the way I thought about everything. Very cool.

Yes. Okay. So good book. And it’s a small, you know, it’s not a big thick long read. It’s a small, but it’s when you say concise and powerful, it’s definitely one of them.

Uh, there’s a book called Lying by Sam Harris that’s like really, really thin, but I mean, crushes it. Yeah, you know, it’s not always about- yeah, no, it doesn’t have to be. I was gonna say The Things They Carried’s not overly long. Yeah, you know, are those all, um, uh, non-fiction? Uh, two of them are.

So Things They Carried is Tim O’Brien was in Vietnam and he wrote this story about being there, and it’s essentially like what you carry back home into the world. So it’s fiction that’s based on nonfiction, whatever category. It’s not historical fiction, but it’s based on a true story. And A Million Little Pieces, when it came out, was billed as an autobiography, but it turns out later it was fake, but it’s still such a powerful book that I didn’t really care.

Yeah, it’s, it’s just this raw look at, um, it’s, it’s truly about addiction, but it’s really about hitting rock bottom and coming back. And it’s just so wonderfully written and moving. And I thought, well, if this guy faked it, then he’s a greater writer than if he really lived it. Wow. Yeah.

So who cares? Or he went to some AA meetings and picked up a bunch of stories. Something. Um, I think he probably had- I think it was another one of those- it was embellished truth. Yeah, sure.

So, but it didn’t, I think he was like an Oprah’s Book List winner and she took it away from him and it didn’t affect me. Oh boy. It didn’t affect me like that. Yeah, sure. Yeah, there’s some things where it stinks, like you like a piece of art or music and then you realize one of the band members did something, you’re like, damn it, but I still like that music.

Like it’s still good music. It’s so conflicting. Yes, it actually in a way, carries this extra weight to that art form. Even if it’s a negative, it actually makes it a powerful thing because of what art is. That’s, uh, now I lose points because this is rapid fire and that’s my bad.

There you go. All right. So I won by default. All right. No more pressure.

Good. Okay. All right. A record now drops from the sky. It’s one record with a record player that you can play.

On repeat? What’s that? I mean, all right, we’re, we’re doing 3 because like I said- oh man, I just, I don’t know- White Pony by Deftones. Oh, um, Myrddin Naumz by Perfect Circle, and then, uh, Tommy, The Who, probably. May- maybe Pink Floyd, The Wall.

Sure. Maybe The Black Album by Metallica. Maybe Pearl Jam. Okay, but you know, like, that was definitely given us the vibe. That one’s iffy, but the first two and White Pony, you know, I didn’t have to really think about that one.

But, but you couldn’t listen to that one only, like, every now and then your ears would need a break. So yeah, I had a guest on, his episode’s coming out in two, but it would have been the one before this, and he’s a doctor, chiropractor. He’s really cool, and he, he answered with He would want some sort of frequency. Uh-huh. Just a solid frequency because he’s like, you know, if I pick a song that’s a vibe and now I’m stuck with that vibe forever.

Like if I’m listening, yeah, I like that Metallica album or whatever, this Pink Floyd album, but on repeat? And I was like, wow, you just blew open Rapid Fire. But, um, that, that was a pretty special answer, but I thought I’d bring that up because you, you’ve definitely. Well, I was gonna say I’ve been listening to all of those for at least 26 years. Yeah.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. They’ve been around. Yeah. Um, and pretty much some of them on repeat, so I haven’t gotten tired of those yet, but I could see that.

And I love frequency. I’ve read tons about that and have tried it, and I think it’s very fascinating. You know, if you listen to at this frequency, do you really retain more of what you’re reading? And does this frequency make the ADHD brain be quiet? Right.

All of those cool things. Yeah. Yeah. I, I know that’s a hard question. So honestly, I don’t blame you for answering it with like- People are like, what’s your favorite movie?

Can’t tell you. What’s your favorite? You know, I just, my brain doesn’t work that way, I guess. I don’t know. That’s why I try to phrase it on like your island and that, because I used to ask like, what’s your favorite?

Right. It’s kind of like, it’s too generic, but it’s the same question. But it’s the same question. That’s, I still, I still can’t. It just frames it with a context of like, okay, I’m chilling on an island.

You can only have one. You can’t pick three, Meredith. Yeah. Now somebody smuggled 3 in the sleeve. I, I hate to say this, but no one’s ever lost Rapid Fire, but you’re, you’re, you’re really approaching that line.

You already DQ’d first, so. That’s right. Okay. I’m in the safe zone. Fair enough.

Fair enough. Let’s, uh, let’s get you through it. Your, the last question. How do you define success? Uh, I referenced this at the beginning, but it’s making a difference to this one.

So this is definitely not going to win Rapid Fire, but. One of the first mission trips that we went on was to Mexico, and this was one that my parents had helped start, and they had done it for years until you had to be in 10th grade to go. So they had been doing it at least 4 years, maybe 5, before I was eligible to go. So we went on it, and the Mexican liaison was doing, you know, an inspirational talk, and he was telling the story of a boy and his dad are walking along the beach, and the beach is just covered and starfish. They’re talking about life, and as they’re walking, the little boy’s picking up starfish and he’s just throwing them in the ocean the whole time they’re walking and talking.

And finally his dad stops and he goes, what are you doing, son? Why are you picking up these starfish and throwing them? Don’t you see how many there are? You’re never going to make a difference. And he goes, throws a starfish in the ocean, made a difference to that one.

Uh-huh.

All right. I was going to disqualify you, but now you’re okay. That’s a great story. That’s very good. So that’s how I made a difference to this one.

So, you know, just having that moment, um, you call it like the golden nugget from a lecture. So the made a difference to this one moment that, you know, you made a difference. I feel like that’s so important because a lot of people become paralyzed that they can’t fix all these problems. You know, the world is not perfect, but the world is great. And there’s a lot of great stuff going on, but there’s a lot to fix or help with, but you- nobody can do it on their own or alone, but we can all make a small difference that actually adds up to enormous.

It’s funny because my, like, mantra this year for my business and then personally is small is big. Small things add up to the big things. There’s no other way to get big without doing a bunch of small stuff to get big, right? Most of the time. And so, I mean, you just pulled at that thread really hard.

Well, and that’s the whole point of Do Good Day, right? Like, literally Perfect. It’s the point of it. You add up the little things and if you don’t know where to start, start here. Come to Ferg’s on March 28th and just start talking to nonprofits and see where you fit.

Totally. See what speaks to you. I think it’s so cool what you’ve done, um, and the way that you present it too. You know, it’s not flimsy and it definitely has heart and passion and a legacy behind it. Which adds just a lot of meaning.

And so it’s something to be super proud of. And I’m, I’m excited that it’s right in our backyard, essentially. And I look forward to supporting it more and as much as I can as we move forward. And you coming on here, hopefully I can make a dent and a little change, a couple listeners. Hey, yeah, there you go.

Well, yeah, everybody that makes a difference, it makes a difference. You know, like you said, small is big. One, two today, one, two tomorrow, by the end of the week you have 10.